All That Glitters Ch. 23

With the discovery that the Union was aware of free citizens of the Union having been taken as slaves by pirates, but no action having been taken by the Union Navy or political elite, The Alliance member planets became more and more arrogant. The practice of hiding slavery was beginning to slip.

The majority of the guests at the opening ceremonies were completely unaware of these facts as the were feted by the government of New Hadria, and thoroughly enjoyed the displays provided.

Artura Handren sat front and center on the main pavilion, with members of the other major families of New Hadria, and the representatives of the human colony planets and of the major families surrounding them. It was a veritable public relations coup for New Hadria and the Handren Company.

The Wanderer, New Hadria, Frogus System

It was late in the afternoon of the third day of festivities and most of the ships of the planetary representatives and the famous families had already left.

A shuttle came up from the planet and settled gently into The Wanderer's hangar as the commercial entry gangway slid down to lock over the shuttle's side hatch. A moment later, the gantry indicated a proper seal and air was let into the vestibule between the main gangway and the side of the ship. One of the ratings opened the hatchway to the main gangway and the people on the shuttle began to move up into the main reception area of The Wanderer.

Raymond Clark, and Liea Samson stood side-by-side at the midway point of the reception area. The receiving line, starting with Capt. Noor, was again on their right. This time, there was no Marine honour guard, but there were many members of the security team situated around the room, in their dark PSS outfits.

The small crowd come up out of the gangway, Artura Handren in the lead.

"Welcome to The Wanderer, Mr. Handren, I am Raymond Clark, and this is my partner, Liea Samson. We own this ship. We met briefly at the opening ceremonies."

Handren murmured something about remembering them, even though he obviously didn't, shook hands with the both of them and introduced them to his team, which consisted mostly of senior members of the Handren Company, a telling point, as there were no members of the supposed New Hadria Government in the group.

Raymond and Liea in turn, introduced their senior personnel, starting with Capt. Noor, who seemed to attract a lot of attention from Artura Handren, moving to Ayesha as the ship's doctor, where the group began to lose interest and then to her fiancé, Sean, where they completely lost interest.

Raymond could almost hear them thinking, 'Why is he introducing a member of the Security Team instead of his Security Chief', the group having failed to recognize that Ayesha, the doctor, was his fiancée, and his placement in the order was dictated by her presence.

To Raymond, it was another telling point on the people in the group and their obvious lack of sympathy for their fellow human beings.

Raymond continued down the line ending, as usual, with the Boatswain. Then followed the obligatory tour of the ship, though this tour was decidedly less involved and the security team stuck close to the guests. Anytime a guest sought to look around away from the group, he or she was gently guided back with the admonition to 'keep together, please'.

As with all tours, they ended up in the main mess, where food was waiting for them. There was no alcohol and when the group inquired as to why, they were told that the ship was getting ready to depart and the crew was no longer allowed alcohol. The Handren group thought this was a funny joke, but soon learned it was not.

Unlike other visitors, the members of the Handren group did not attempt to socialize with the crew or the owners, which made for a somewhat frosty luncheon.

As per normal, Riley had been busy. She had been to the station and noted the food stuffs on display and that which had been brought back by crew on shore leave. She quickly realized that most of the meals were actually local variants of cuisines from other planets and they were not using the proper spices for the particular selections, which was why the food on the station seemed off. Of course, Riley corrected that.

The Handren group recognized the samples of their supposed native cuisine, but when the bit into their selections, they were pleasantly surprised by the taste.

"How is it that you make this taste so different, Master Chef?" one of the group asked.

"Your local spices do not do justice to the origins of these meals, sir," Riley explained. "I know where most of these meals originated from and have the proper spices that should be used in them. It is simple to bring out the taste when fresh produce and the proper spices are used."

Many in the Handren group bristled at her causal use of the term local spices, but the results spoke for themselves. The frostiness of the Handren group continued throughout the meal until Liea had enough.

"I think it is time to end this travesty, Raymond," she said quietly to her partner, who nodded in agreement.

"It is time we returned you to your shuttle, Mr. Handren," Raymond said. "We need to start preparing for departure."

"Departure?" Handren said, mildly amused. "You cannot leave until we have reciprocated for the tour of your vessel, sir. I invite you to Handren Villa tomorrow morning, sir."

"I'm afraid, sir, that we have a schedule to keep and will need to leave soon to keep it," Raymond returned.

"Nonsense, sir," Handren replied. "I know for a fact you are retired and have no commitments; thus you can stay until later and see our villa this evening."

"Besides," Handren continued. "Your captain needs to clear customs at the station for the ship, it will take awhile to do that, thus you will have the time to come to my villa."

The look he gave Raymond brook no argument, and Raymond was forced to allow the return visit, knowing full well it was likely a trap.

"We will meet you this evening, say seven local time? I will bring Liea with me, our bodyguards, and the crew of our shuttle," Raymond stated.

"You may bring one bodyguard, and we can provide the shuttle for you," Handren countered.

"Not possible, sir," Raymond began. "Should Capt. Noor finish quickly at customs, we would need to be able to return to the ship on our own, we will come down to the coordinates you give us in our own shuttle." On this, Raymond too was firm.

Handren, seeing the set of Raymond's jaw, agreed and his group was escorted back to main reception where they waved good-bye and moved down to their shuttle, which quickly departed.

A few minutes later, coordinates for the meeting were sent to The Wanderer.

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

"Well, that didn't go as planned," Liea stated.

"Not the least, and what the hell is this need to clear customs?" Henadi asked.

"I think it is a ruse to get you off the ship," Analisa informed them. "With both you and the owners off The Wanderer, they think they have control over her."

"Makes sense to me," Raymond said. "Analisa, you will go with Henadi when she goes to the station, We will have extra persons in EVA Combat suits on the shuttle that takes you to the station, they will remain on the shuttle, but I want them there in case the station tries to pull something stupid.

"We will go planet side in the Jean Jacques Aucoin, with Lt. Marneau and his crew. If anything happens, the firepower available on the Aucoin should be able to extract us. We will also all be wearing our PSS, though I will allow a splash of colour," Raymond finished with a grin to Kim and Liea.

"I need to go to the station as well," Ayesha cut in. "Our recent inventory showed that some of our bandages and wraps are no longer sterile, we need to replace them and the local hospital's prices are reasonable. We can order ahead and have it waiting for us at customs."

"OK, but and all of you will travel in PSS, and Sean is with you in an EVA suit," Raymond insisted. "I wish I could insist on EVA suits for all of you, but that would look suspicious."

Combat Shuttle 3, Handren Station

The combat shuttle left the ship and headed to the station. On board, were Capt. Noor, Ayesha Seito, Sean, in his EVA suit, and Analisa Talbot. Also in the shuttle were twelve marines in their newly up armoured Combat EVA suits, ready for anything. Up front were two shuttle pilots, dressed in PSS. They were sealed into the cockpit, where they would remain during the customs interview in case the smelly stuff hit the fan.

Noor, Seito, Murphy, and Talbot exited the shuttle and moved to customs, where Dr. Elizabeth Oren was waiting with a box of supplies for Ayesha. Ayesha smiled and shook hands with Dr. Oren then began to inspect her new supplies. She made sure her order was complete and that all the bandages and wraps were still sealed. She signed and paid for the box, taking it and giving it to Sean.

Analisa was watching as Henadi talked to the man at customs. Something was wrong but she didn't initially know what, then it clicked in. The customs officer was sweating, but it was chilly in the shuttle bay.

Sean had returned from the shuttle, where he had disposed of the box of supplies. He had not wanted to have anything in his hands should something go wrong. As he approached Analisa he noted her left hand behind her ass, pointed down in the form of a pistol, the age old symbol for armed enemy.

Sean tapped her gently on the arm as he passed, indicating he saw the signal and looked around carefully. There was a lot of station security in the bay, when normally there were only a couple of security around the customs point. The hair on his neck was standing up.

Sean touched Ayesha. "Time to head back to the shuttle, Seito," he told her, making a point of using her last name. Ayesha was quick on the uptake but not used to being subtle. She looked around and saw all the station security. Her movements alerted Dr. Oren, who looked around too. She suddenly lost the smile on her face, wished Ayesha good fortune, and abruptly left the area.

A security goon stepped forward.

"You are all under arrest!" he shouted, probably for the benefit of the cameras in the customs area.

"On what charges?" demanded Henadi.

"Sedition!" the man replied with a sneer. "You are attempting to change our way of life and free the slaves."

Analisa laughed once, and then pulled her weapons, as did Henadi. Three of the security attacked Noor and Talbot each and suddenly found themselves outmatched by two very good close in fighters. The six went down fast, and hard, not getting back up for several minutes.

There was still a crowd of over thirty station security. They saw the results of attacking close quarters and pulled stun guns. These were heavily modified and cold provide a very powerful stun effect. They quickly chose their targets and opened up.

As soon as the initial attack had occurred, Henadi, Analisa, and Ayesha closed their electronic bubbles, sealing themselves in their PSS. It was not a moment too soon, as they were suddenly bombarded by thirty stunners at full effect. The PSS were designed to stop several blasts by energy weapons, but with seven or eight stunners firing multiple times at each member of the small group, they quickly reached the capacity of the PSS, and the shields failed.

However, the suits had bought them just enough time. As soon as the pilots noted the action, they started up the shuttles engines and opened the main side hatch. Two station security guards attempted to jump into the back of the shuttle only to be forcibly ejected by twelve Marines in Combat EVA exiting the rear compartment. The Marines waded into the fight, completely overwhelming the station's guards.

Noor activated her comp and advised the ship of the incident, or tried to, as the station was supressing transmissions. Next, she contacted the shuttle pilots.

"Do you have contact with the ship?" she asked them. She could see one of them talking. The other looked at her and shook his head no.

More station security began to move into the bay, these much more heavily armed. They began shooting indiscriminately into the bay with deadly force. The Marines weathered the initial barrage, but the original security forces were being injured and killed by their own people.

The Marines turned on the new threat and began to engage them with stun guns, to very good effect. However, the flow of stun and pulse weapons was putting the three members of the crew in PSS at risk.

The three were hit by several rounds of solid shot each, fortunately they were protected by their personal body armour as the rounds hit center of mass. Protected they might have been, but the impacts still hurt causing the three to stagger at each impact.

Sean pushed Ayesha back toward the shuttle, then got separated from her when three members of station security in EVA suits engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. Being a member of ship's security, Sean had been training continuously since he had boarded the ship. The three attackers had little chance against him.

One of the Marines picked up Ayesha and carried her into the shuttle.

"Stay put!" he told her over his suit speaker, then went back into the fray. Unbeknownst to the crew from The Wanderer, three members of station security slipped behind the shuttle and into the rear cabin once the Marine left, leaving them inside with Ayesha. They smiled when they saw the diminutive woman in medical white.

Unfortunately for the intruders, Ayesha had been required to attend the daily training regimes along with Sgt. Wiccans. She had now been on the ship for several weeks and had learned more than a little about how to defend herself. So, when the intruders reached out to grab her, they got a nasty little surprise.

Ayesha stepped under the reach of the first man, grabbing his wrist as she tucked herself in close to him, and pulled. The man tried to drop to his knees to prevent him being thrown over her shoulder, but Ayesha was just trained too well. When she felt him shift his weight, she pushed her ass back into his upper legs and pulled harder, he went over her shoulder in a perfect flip and was thrown cleanly out of the open hatch.

The second man engaged his electric prod and pushed it hard into Ayesha's stomach expecting her to curl up into a little ball. To his surprise, the charge simply formed a nimbus around her body as her Personal Body Armour engaged. Ayesha jumped up and kicked him solidly in the chin. An explosion of stars burst behind his eyes as he collapsed unconscious.

Ayesha turned to the last man, only to see him jerk suddenly and go down, the Marine standing behind him had stunned him. He picked him up and threw him out of the hatch, then dragged the second unconscious man out as he exited, the first, the one Ayesha had thrown out of the shuttle, having already been stunned by the same Marine. Ayesha was now alone again in the shuttle, but not idol, as she immediately began to set up a triage area at the back of the shuttle, knowing that injuries were going to come in. Ayesha thought she was well prepared for whatever would happen. She would soon be proved wrong on that count.

The battle was not going well for the Marines, as more station guards in EVA suits came in. The guards indiscriminately threw live grenades into the midst of the combat, once again injuring more of their own than their enemy, however, they did injure many of the Marines as even Combat EVA suits could only take so much damage.

The Sergeant in charge of the troop directed the Marines to use deadly force, and the battle shifted yet again. This time, the Marines came in with a purpose, to stop the enemy assault at any cost.

The Marines started to fall back toward the shuttle, but in the engagement, they lost contact with Analisa and the Captain, who were overwhelmed by a dozen guards in EVA suits. Wearing only PSS suits that had already been compromised, they both went down hard. The guards tried to drag them away, but where again engaged by the Marines, who managed to rescue Analisa Talbot but the unconscious Henadi Noor was carried away into the station.

With more guards coming into the bay, the Sergeant made a hard decision, and had his men fall back to the shuttle. The pilots of the shuttle opened the weapons and fired a quick blast of 20mm solid shot into the bay, temporarily scattering the guards, giving the Marines time to make it back into the shuttle, pulling their wounded with them.

The pilots sealed the shuttle and lifted from the deck, turning the small ship around to face the large hatch. They fired a burst of 20mm rounds at the hatch, which suddenly began to open, the station realizing that it was more prudent to let them out than to lose the expensive hatch.

The pilots waited only until the opening in the hatch was just large enough to allow egress and then pushed the little ship forward and out of the bay. The ship jinked and weaved as it quickly picked up speed, the extra power available to them a considerable surprise to those on the station.

Instead of going directly toward the ship, they went up and over the plain of the station, where the only weapons they had to deal with were the guns at the tip of the tower, considerably less than what they would have had to deal with, had they gone on a more direct route. The shuttle fluidly gained speed, outmatching the combat vehicles sent against them. They could do better than ninety percent light while most combat shuttles or other combat vehicles were considerably slower.

Ayesha was working in the back of the shuttle, trying to keep four people alive, including Sean, who had several large holes in his armour. He was not the only one as two of the Marines had taken serious damage to their suits and the bodies beneath. Their personal body armour had potentially saved them from immediately fatal injuries, but the armour was only so effective and the four had take many impacts of grenades and solid shot. She packed the wounds as best she could to prevent bleeding out, not wanting to take them out of their protective suits while still on the shuttle.

Analisa was by far the worse of the four. She was only wearing a PSS and had taken many serious wounds, including being clubbed to the head. The one that worried her the most though was a deep wound under her arm, most likely from a piece of shrapnel.

"We're back in contact with the ship," the pilot's voice came to them from the front. "They know that Capt. Noor has been captured. The ship is moving to intercept us, but they are being engaged by ships of the Planetary Defence Force. It's going to be a harry run back to home base!" he told them.

"I've got seriously wounded people back here; we need to get back to the ship as soon as possible!" Ayesha shouted back.

"Doing the best I can, Doc," the pilot came back.

All Ayesha could do now was monitor her patients and keep an eye on the lesser injured members of the team, thank the Gods she had that large box of new medical supplies! The other Marines were helping them out of their EVA suits and tending to their wounds. All of them having been in combat before, they knew the score; the badly wounded would receive all the emergency care, those who had lesser wounds would not be looked at until they got back to the ship. They had to help themselves.

It took them an infuriating long twenty minutes to return to the ship, the local defence force interfering with their progress even though they were broadcasting a medical emergency.

The shuttle landed in the forward shuttle bay and the commercial gantry locked on to the hull. As soon as the hatch opened people with gurneys rushed in to get the severely injured while the walking wounded made their own way into the ship or were helped as needed.