All That Glitters Ch. 24

Johal Compound, Terra

The six remaining ladies were huddled together in the far corner of the saferoom, crying and shivering in terror as they watched room's only door. The door was made of layered hull plating and would keep out even the most determined assailant, however, the attackers were quite aware of this fact and chose not to use the door.

Without warning, a section of the wall blew inwards showering the group with dust and scarring them even more. The ladies screamed in horror as eight men entered the room.

"I'm going to send Andjuran a message he will not soon forget!" crowed the man that Hanalei recognized as the same ugly man that had stalked her at Denders Resort so many months ago.

"That one is mine!" he told his henchmen, pointing at Hanalei.

Five men came forward and each plucked one of the other hapless women, overpowering and taking the screaming women away to elsewhere in the basement.

Two men held Hanalei's hands and ripped her gown from her body, leaving her in just her panties and slippers. They pushed her back onto some boxes which were at a convenient height for what was necessary, as the ugly man of Hanalei's nightmares slipped off his pants.

Hanalei was helpless in front of this monster. She was about to be violated by this man and probably the other two as well. Worse, she could hear the screams of the other ladies as they met their own fates.

One-by-one, the screaming from the others stopped, and tears ran down Hanalei's face for the fate of her friends.

The ugly man was now naked from the waist down. His hairy body made him look like some kind of monster, apropos, Hanalei thought. The man's tumescent weapon looked as hairy as the rest of him its length partially hidden in his dark pubic hair.

The man reached out and ripped Hanalei's panties from her body, but that brought her feet inside of his thighs.

Hanalei didn't think, she just reacted. Her hands were being held by these villains, but her feet were free. She kicked out with her right foot, connecting squarely with the balls of her assailant. Her strike was true and due to her fear, very powerful. The man only got to make a little bit of a squeak before Hanalei brought the heel of her left foot hard into his balls, effectively crushing them.

Hanalei looked down at his rapidly deflating cock, as a trickle of blood dripped from the tip. If she hadn't emasculated him on her first kick, her second had definitely completed the job. The ugly man began to sink slowly to the floor, his face a mask of pain, hands covering his groin.

"You bitch!" screamed the man on her left. Both men were holding her by the wrist, and Hanalei knew what was coming. Before the man could strike her, she opened her left hand and raked her fingernails down what she could reach of his wrist.

The man screamed in pain and jumped back, letting go of Hanalei, who swiftly turned and raked the face of the other man holding her, leaving four distinctive lines of blood over his face.

This man too screamed and pulled back, releasing Hanalei, who quickly stood up.

"You want to rape me!" she screamed at the men from atop the boxes. "You will have to defile my corpse for I will never let you do that to me!"

The man whose face she had marred pulled his hand away from his damaged face, looking at the blood on his hand. Rage split his face.

"I'll kill you!" he shouted, pulling a long blade from his belt. The man raised his arm, and suddenly fell like a sack of rice!

It took a moment for Hanalei to recognize the sound of a stun weapon and she only did so when it had fired a second time, taking down her other assailant.

A shocked Hanalei looked up to see four people in black outfits standing in the room. One of them, a woman, jumped up onto the boxes holding a cloak which she helped Hanalei into. The smaller woman tied the cloak tight at Hanalei's throat, just under her breasts, and at her crotch.

"Are you OK, Miss?" the woman calmly asked.

Hanalei took a moment to take stock of herself before answering. She noted that her finger hurt like blazes. Looking down, she saw that the nail on the ring finger of her left hand had broken halfway up the quick. She slowly raised her hand to show the gore covered nails to the other woman.

"He made me break my nail," she said, speaking sadly.

The four strangers laughed at her comment.

"I like this lady," said a woman at the back.

"What happened to this one?" another woman asked, pointing at the ugly man, withering on the cement floor. "We didn't stun him."

"He was going to rape me, so I crushed his balls," Hanalei stated, matter-of-factly.

"Gods!" said the only male in the foursome, to the smiles of the women.

"What of my friends?" Hanalei asked.

"They are all safe," she was told. "We have the other would-be rapists in custody."

Hanalei was pleased. So many had already died this day.

The Wanderer, Liramor Prime, Liramor System, Thirty Light Years from Terra

The Wanderer winked into existence above the gravity well of the planet and requested assistance from IPPF and a coroner. Planetary Control reacted immediately to the request and gave the ship priority to get it down into its parking orbit.

The ship arrived at its designated orbit just as the shuttle came up from the planet. The Wanderer opened for it allowing it into the starboard half of bay one. Raymond met them in the reception area, which still held the field hospital that had been set up by Sgt. Wiccans. The visitors took in the site of the bloody deck and gurneys that had been used for the lesser injured and waited silently for Raymond to speak.

"Here is the ship's log for the last three days, including the private logs from the comps of all personnel involved," he stated, handing over a chip to C. Supt. Maria Sanger. "I want you to go over that with personnel from Intel at the Navy base and determine if we overstepped our authority. If not, I will be requesting a formal IPPF warrant for Artura Handren for the murder of Analisa Talbot, and the kidnapping of Capt. Henadi Noor, which he probably conducted in order to claim the bounty on her.

"I also want charges against him for the attempted murder of Kim Oshiiru and the attempted kidnapping of myself and Liea Samson," Raymond finished.

Sanger was shocked when she heard who had died. She knew Analisa well and had worked with her on many occasions.

The Coroner stepped forward. "I am Dr. Lauren Domuchelle, the Chief Medical Examiner for Capital City," she introduced herself. "Where is the body?" she asked.

"In the ship's morgue, ma'am," the Boatswain replied.

"I have a rather upset ship's doctor who believes she could have saved Analisa's life had she made it back to the ship in time. I need you to confirm the cause of death, and whether the twenty-minute delay getting her back to the ship might have contributed to the death of Ms. Talbot," Raymond formally asked the Coroner.

"The ship is sealed until you release it," Raymond told Sanger. "I would prefer that you work as quickly as you can, as we might be needed in a few days."

"I will need a place to work," she stated.

"We will assign you VIP guestrooms," Raymond said. "The comms gear in those rooms is top of the line and secure. You will have exclusive access to the VIP Conference Room to conduct interviews. The comms gear in the Conference Room is likewise top of the line and secure. We will not record any communications between your team and the surface nor any internal comms between your team members.

"I suggest you get hold of the base soonest, so that you can commence your inquiry. We can put the Navy personnel in guestrooms opposite your team. Let my Purser know how many people you will need but try to keep the numbers down for security reasons.

"The crew has already been advised to cooperate with your team and answer any questions put to them. Your team will eat in the VIP mess to keep crew interaction to a minimum," Raymond finished.

Sanger nodded and followed the Purser with her two man team in tow. They put their jump bags in the rooms assigned to them and immediately convened in the designated conference room. Four new, unused computers were waiting for them. They had their own 3D monitors, which meant they were independent of the ship's systems.

They had been working for more than an hour when an eight person team from the navy base arrived. Sanger quickly brought them up to speed as they had already started the timeline of events.

The combined team had been working for several hours when they heard the chime at the hatch. There was a VIP hostess with a cart of food and coffee for them. The food was surprisingly good.

The Coroner entered the room.

"I've looked at the body and determined that she might have survived for as long as ten minutes before she expired, but it is difficult to say. The body had received many injuries to her torso, supposedly from solid shot. I've seen the damage to the personal body armour and it is consistent with the placement of the injuries on the body.

"She had also received cuts to her face from flying debris and had received a powerful blow to the back of her head, which would have rendered her unconscious if not comatose. While that blow would not have been fatal, it would have reduced her body's ability to help itself.

"The fatal wound was under the left arm where a piece of high speed shrapnel penetrated her thorax and nicked the brachial artery. She would have bled internally unless the damaged artery was sealed. The twenty-minute delay was fatal, but I cannot say that she would have survived. It is possible she could have been saved, but everything would have had to go right for that to have happened.

"From what I have seen of the care to the injuries of the other combatants, I can say that DNP Ayesha Seito might have saved Ms. Talbot under the best of circumstances. She did good to save the lives of the three other injured. Due to the injuries they sustained, all four could easily have been lost had she been any less competent. Professionally, I am impressed that a DNP was able to do what she did," Dr. Domuchelle concluded.

"Maria?" Domuchelle, inquired when she saw Sanger's reaction.

"Analisa was a friend of mine, Lauren. I've worked with her for years, and she has trained many of my people," Sanger informed the examiner.

"Should you be heading this inquiry?" Domuchelle asked.

"I do this for her, Lauren. She deserves the best in this matter and I am the best," Sanger stated. "There may be times when things might catch me, for a moment, but I will not let my emotions colour this inquiry. Whomever is responsible, whether on this ship or at New Hadria, I will expose that person and act accordingly."

They got back to work, Dr. Domuchelle making her deposition, and then retiring to the infirmary to help Ayesha Seito with her patients.

Infirmary, The Wanderer, Liramor Prime

Ayesha had been running on adrenaline for two days, keeping her three charges alive. Wiccans was in awe of her work ethic and impressed with her practical medical knowledge, which was far beyond the level expected of a DNP. The ship was fortunate to have taken this little lady on.

For now though, he had to get her to take more than an hour's rest at a time. Her charges were still critical though, and she wouldn't leave the infirmary with them in that condition. He had no idea what he could do to help her when an angel, in the form of the Coroner walked in.

"How are you two holding up?" Lauren asked the pair.

"I'm doing well, ma'am," Sgt. Wiccans told her, when Ayesha did not immediately speak up, "though I cannot say the same for Doc, ma'am. She has been on her feet for almost sixty hour, with very little rest."

"Is this correct DNP Seito?" Lauren asked sharply.

"Yes, ma'am," Ayesha admitted. "One of the severely injured is my fiancé. I can't sleep well without him, so I wind up coming back here to do what I can."

"Right, doctor's orders!" Lauren snapped. "You are to take one of the unused gurneys and place it in his room, right next to your man if you need to, but you are ordered to sleep for the next eight hours. If you wake up worried, you can see that he is there and still going strong and that will allow you to go back to sleep again. If you do not do this on your own, I will sedate you. Your choice, Ms. Seito.

"Sgt. Wiccans and I can tend to the injured until you wake. You will not do your patients any good, Ayesha, if you collapse on them at a critical moment. Go! Sleep! Now!"

Ayesha came forward and hugged the woman, while Wiccans pulled a gurney and put it beside Sean. A grateful Ayesha slipped up on the bed and cried herself to sleep beside him, which didn't take very long considering her near exhausted condition.

"And you? How much sleep did you get recently?" Lauren asked sternly of Wiccans.

"I'm good for another four hours, ma'am. then I will need sleep," he told the feisty doctor.

"Right, lets take a look at your patients and then you can show me your layout in case I wind up working alone for a couple of hours," she told him with a smile.

Johal Compound, Terra

The bodies of three men and two women lay on white sheets, dressed in their finest. Hanalei led the five remaining women in the prayers for the dead over the bodies of Saabira Asghar, the former Matriarch, Harith Ghulam, a guard, Elaf Marwan, a guard, Paree Jawahar, one of the ladies of the compound, and Raakin Nabih, a guard.

As each prayer was finished, they carefully wrapped the body in the sheet they were laying on and moved it into a provided coffin. As each coffin was sealed, the little group said a prayer for the departed soul.

It had been two days since the assault, but the bodies had only just been released by the coroner's office to the people in the Johal Compound, allowing the members of the household to complete the rituals.

The coffins were on gravity pallets which were moved to the cemetery behind the compound, where Ahmed Johal and his wife lay buried. Hired help had already dug the graves and would help to place and cover the coffins. Headstones were already in place.

The group slowly made it's way back to the common room in the center of the building, where the event had taken place two days before, and sat at one of the tables. The woman who had helped cover Hanalei in the saferoom came and sat with them. Known only as 'Sandy', she was obviously one of the leaders of her team, if not the leader.

"We need to figure out what we are going to do now?" Ji'en Nahdi spoke into the silence. A small woman, she was one of those who had been in the compound almost as long as the former matriarch.

"We need to call back some of the guards," Hanalei said. "But I don't know how to get a hold of them."

"I do," Vardah Fadel stated. "The Matriarch had me call some of them back the last time Andjuran returned from off planet."

"OK, then we need to bring back at least five of the guards," Hanalei told her.

"Do any of you have places that you can go?" Sandy asked of them. All but Hanalei shook their heads no. They were, like Hanalei, Fullohd, the unlucky, and had been shunned by their former community and even their own families.

"Then I suggest that you remain here," Hanalei said. "There is a budget for the compound that I can tell you about that will allow you to live in the same state we have enjoyed here, though with a great deal more freedom."

"There will also be credits available to you as victims of crime," Sandy told them. "The TGA will also help educate you to achieve skills in whatever discipline you wish to, so that you have something to fall back on later, should you decide to strike out on your own." That brought some excitement from the ladies.

"We need to decide who will be the next Matriarch," Hanalei said during a miner lull in the conversation.

"I nominate you, Hanalei," Ji'en said, enthusiastically. But Hanalei held up her hand and shook her head.

"I have an intended, and I will go to him now that I can. You will have to choose another from amongst you," she finished.

The women cried out at the impending loss, but also were happy for Hanalei, a Fullohd, to have found such good fortune.

Hanalei turned to Sandy. "My work here is finished; can you help me get to Fayad?" she asked of the woman.

"Yes. We have a ship going there shortly. We will ensure you are on it," Sandy told her. "You will have to pack your things and be ready to go tomorrow. We will keep some people here for security until your guards return. Though we may have to vet them for their loyalty to Andjuran before we allow them to return to this compound."

The ladies all came to hug Hanalei and wish her well.

Infirmary, The Wanderer, Liramor Prime Orbit, Liramor System

Dr. Domuchelle came into Sean's room some six hours later to check on his condition and found Ayesha tucked up under his left arm. She was not pleased.

"Ayesha! Wake up! What are you doing in Sean's bed?" she asked angrily as Ayesha slowly came awake.

"Dr. Domuchelle?" The confused woman asked looked over at Lauren and then at where she was and jumped up.

"OW!" came the gruff and groggy voice of Sean. "Easy there honey, sudden movements hurt!"

"Sean!!" Ayesha screamed and fell on top of him kissing his cheeks.

"Shit! Didn't you hear what I just said?" Sean demanded. "Sudden movements hurt!"

"How did you wind up on his bed, Nurse Seito!" Lauren demanded, with more force in her voice.

"It's OK, doc," Sean said, with a grin. "I saw her there and pulled her up with me. I missed my fiancée in my arms."

Lauren harrumphed, but relented. She did a quick check and found him to be better and saw no oozing of his bandages.

"Alright, she can stay there for now, as long as she doesn't move suddenly. AND ABSOLUTELY NO SEX!! Despite how pleasant it might be, it would probably kill you!"

The two on the bed laughed, which caused Sean to wince again.

"Yeah, laughing hurts, too," he said, bringing giggles from both ladies.

"Alright, I'm going to dial up the auto dispenser to help you get back to sleep, Sean. And you Nurse Seito, still need two hours sleep. Are you going to be able to do that? Or do I need to sedate you too?" demanded the doctor.

"I think she'll be good, Dr. Please let her stay. I feel better when she is with me," Sean mumbled drowsily as the extra meds made him drift off to sleep.

Lauren heard the tears coming from Ayesha and gave her the box of tissues to dry her eyes.

"He pulled you into his bed with one arm, in his condition?" Lauren asked of Ayesha.

"He's a strong one, my man," Ayesha confirmed.

"Are you going to be able to sleep?" Lauren asked.

"Yes, now that I know he is getting better, I will be able to sleep," Ayesha confirmed.

"Good, I'll be back to wake you in two hours. Your shift will start then."

Lauren popped the brake on the spare gurney and pulled it out of the room.

"Remember, no hanky-panky!" she said as she slipped out of the room, hearing relieved giggles from Ayesha.

The Wanderer, Liramor Prime Orbit, Liramor System

The Rear Admiral Jean Phillip Charbonnier, the JAG of Sector Forty-Three, sat behind the desk on a raised platform with two clerks as the final phase of the inquiry into the incident at New Hadria was conducted.

In front of him, facing the ship's crew, was the inquiry team, which included two Captains whose medals showed they had both seen plenty of action, two Navy Intel Commanders, one Commander Engineer, one Commander with Weapons O badges, one Commander Navigator, C. Supt. Sanger, her three man IPPF team, and the Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Lauren Domuchelle. The ship's crew sat in rows in front of the judge in the large theatre, which could accommodate everyone, Raymond Clark, Liea Samson, Kim Oshiiru, Cdr. James Hull, and the Lieutenants in command of the Valour Class ships front and center. The only personnel missing where those on duty, and they were watching from their duty posts.