All That Glitters Ch. 27

"Let's face it boss," Damyanti spoke for all of them. "We didn't know how you would react. This was a place of many happy memories for you, but also many sad memories of late."

"Why don't we check out our quarters while we are here?" Helga suggested. They moved up one level to the E-Deck VIP quarters. Fiona found the hatch to her stateroom had been moved, which made sense as she had a stateroom with a view. It would have had to move to keep the view.

The hatch whisked open much more quietly than what she was used to. She walked into an area that was larger than what she remembered. Much of the old furniture was there, but so too were new pieces. She looked around the living space and admired the view, which was slightly different from that of memory.

The kitchenette had all new fixtures and looked like it could be a more efficient unit than she remembered. Not that she had done much cooking in the old unit, she simply didn't have the time.

The room was divided in two, the bedroom separated from the main living area. The bedroom had a larger bed, taking advantage of the extra room to have a king-sized unit installed. The bathroom was larger and much better appointed. The perks of being the Boss, she thought. Satisfied, she went to find her subordinates.

Helga and Damyanti were happy with their new quarters and were much more animated when they moved back down to F-Deck and into Conference Room One.

Like most of what they had already seen, the room had been expanded some. The conference table was much larger, easily able to hold all who presently sat in the morning briefs. The view was the same as before, yet slightly different. She remembered this view. It was this room that finally set her resolve. She could come back here now.

"We will have to hold a little ceremony," Fiona said. "To acknowledge those who we have lost.

"I want the Presentation Sword they gave me to be on that wall," she said, pointing out where it was to be. "At least until I leave the platform, then it comes with me," she said with a smile to her entourage.

"We still have some of the diamonds from Raymond's original claim," Helga told her. "We could mount one of them in here, too."

"And we need a large model of the Liramor-23 crest on the wall over there," Damyanti suggested, pointing to where she thought it should go, on a support strut that split the view. The strut was large enough to hold a fair-sized version of the crest.

"OK. We have until Friday to organize everything," Fiona replied. "Let's make it happen.

The group left in much better spirits than they had arrived.

Central Control (new), Foxtrot Deck, Liramor-23, Piscium System

The ceremony for the re-opening of the newly repaired Central Control was brief, but not without its pain.

The Chief Maintenance for Liramor-23 was there at a covered table.

Cdr. Damyanti Balakrishnan stepped forward near the wall that separated Central Control from Conference Room One and close to the large plasteel window. The view was spectacular.

"Attention on Deck!" she called out.

"In the recent Second Battle of Liramor-23, we lost some good people in this very room. Twenty-four people stayed at their workstations, knowing that a missile was headed their way. They could have run, but they chose not to. For this, they were recently awarded Medals of Bravery, twelve posthumously.

"You all know who they were. Though I have never met them, I too know who they were. They exemplify the kind of people that work here on this platform. Strong, proud, dedicated, and willing to go the extra mile.

"Mr. Baker, if you please," Damyanti asked of the Chief of Maintenance.

William Baker, lifted the sheet covering a table exposing metal plaques with the names, dates of birth and death, an image of each of the deceased persons named, and images of the medals they had been awarded.

He placed the plaques at prepared points along the wall, Damyanti calling out the name of each as it was placed on what would be called The Wall of Heroes. Now, whenever the people who worked here looked at the spectacular view they had, they also saw the plaques to their fallen comrades on the that wall.

Fiona moved down the wall, touching each of the ten plaque in turn, saying a final silent goodbye to each of those who had died in this room. She was touched by the tribute that Damyanti and William had created. She knew she would have to build another such wall elsewhere on the platform for the miners who had lost their lives in that battle.

Fiona turned to look at those who were with her in Central Control. "Many of you were here that day, some of you were not on duty but did not hesitate to help elsewhere on the platform.

"The sacrifice of these twelve was not something that I had intended, nor wanted. That they stayed their posts was an act of bravery that few of us will be able to emulate.

"I ask of all of you that you remember these twelve and their sacrifice. Soon enough, most of you will rotate out of Liramor-23, and the common memory of these twelve will be lost to history. Let us keep that history, and that tradition of doing more alive," Fiona picked up a glass and lifted it in toast.

"To our missing friends," she intoned and took a sip. Unfortunately, they would be working shortly, so it was apple juice.

"To missing friends," the chant was repeated by all and they too sipped at their apple juice.

Helga and David Latten came forward with a blue ribbon and Damyanti presented Fiona with silver scissors.

"I declare the new Central Control, open for business," she stated, and cut the ribbon, to a cheer from the assembled.

"Central Control will establish itself in this location as of second shift. Until then, you are free to look around," Fiona said and moved to shake people's hands.

Cynthia Stewart had been recording the entire event. She walked around the new workstations, and up into Fiona's new office. Images of prior directors of Liramor-23 hung on a wall, Fiona's listed as the 'present' director. The desk was larger than she remembered but it was one of the items that had been destroyed during the Second Battle of Liramor-23 and had to be replaced.

Turning, she made her way to Conference Room One, taking in the pieces of paraphernalia on the walls.

The first thing people saw as they entered the room from Central Control was the large Liramor-23 crest on the far wall. A large metal beam cut the plasteel window in two, giving the perfect location for the crest to hang.

On the wall nearest her, to her right, was a piece of one of the pirate ships that had been destroyed during the First Battle of Liramor-23, the name of the ship emblazoned on the metal. Probably something from inside the ship as it was small enough to fit on the wall.

On the opposite wall, on the other side of the large conference table, was another piece of pirate vessel, this one from the Second Battle of Liramor-23 with the name 'The Pollard', the flag ship of the other pirate fleet, prominently exposed on it.

There was a smaller piece of metal nearby, with a number on it, a piece of the second nuclear missile that had been fired at the platform and destroyed by the NS Claridge, the Claridge having its own souvenir. Plaques under each memento described what they were and their meaning to the platform.

On the wall above the large conference table, was the ornate commemorative presentation sword that had been given to Commodore Marsh by the people of the Union mounted horizontally in its presentation box. It was an ornate piece of art, beautiful to behold. Fiona would take this sword with her when she left the platform.

Not far from it was another sword, also in a presentation box but mounted vertically, the command sword for the Piscium Defence Force. This sword would be presented to the next commander of the defence force when Commodore Marsh left her post. It would stay on the platform.

Beside that sword was an ornately inscribed document, indicating that Cmdre. Fiona Marsh was the first commander of the Piscium Defence Force, signed by Cmdre. Marsh and FAdm. Charles Thenton, commander Sector Forty-Two.

On another wall, encased in glass, was one of the large diamonds that had been found in Raymond Clark's original final claim. The diamond was huge, needing two hands to hold it.

Opposite it, on another pillar, was a piece of the very first rock ever mined at Liramor-23. The dirty looking piece of rock was so oddly dissimilar to the diamond, but just as important in the history of the platform.

Cynthia walked out the opposite door, into the corridor that moved around Conference Room One, seeing cases which held other items from the history of the platform, all of them important but none of them with the impact of the items that were being shown in conference Room One.

At the end of the corridor was the entrance to Conference Room Two. It too had been enlarged, now capable of holding a conference with perhaps fifteen to twenty participants.

Finished with her recording Cynthia made her way back to Conference Room One, where Fiona was waiting for her. As agreed, they would conduct an interview on what the expansion of the platform meant.

"Good day, viewers, this is Cynthia Stewart, independent news reporter, reporting from Liramor-23," she began.

"With me today, I have the Director of Operations for Liramor-23, Fiona Marsh, who is also Commodore Fiona Marsh, commanding the Piscium Defence Force.

"Good day Ms. Marsh, I see that we have re-opened Central Control for Liramor-23..."

"Yes, that is correct," Fiona replied. "With the damage to the platform that had occurred during the Second Battle to Liramor-23, we needed to make considerable repairs. This included repairs to the ore ovens, the hospital, much of the living quarters, gymnasiums, the cafeterias, messes, and bars. These repairs are still ongoing, but we are now able to re-open much of what has already been repaired.

"Due to the interest that this system now has for the Terran Union, it has been decided to expand the platform in size and to change its purpose slightly, making it a future point of contact with the aliens we now know are out there.

"To this purpose, the design of the platform has been changed. We now will have a shopping concourse, an embassy, a campus of Malton University, a new theatre, and even living space for families," Fiona ended.

"That is a significant development," Cynthia commented. "The platform is to have families now, on a working mining platform?"

"Yes. It has been decided that with the installation of the new embassy, families will likely follow, either human families, or potentially alien families, should they have such a social structure. We will continue to be a working mining platform, but we will also have the responsibility to the Terran Union of hosting the embassy," Fiona told her.

"You said, Campus of Malton University?" Cynthia asked.

"Yes. Most of our people are from Liramor Prime," Fiona explained. "However, we are getting more and more people from across the Union, as well as more and more Navy personnel attached to the platform as their command center.

"Navy personnel must use a University that is recognized across the Union. Except for certain courses and programs, the universities on Liramor Prime do not have the distinction of full recognition in the Union, at least not yet. For this reason, we established a campus of Malton University on the platform.

"I suppose we will shortly have to add a school for children, too."

"Children? On a mining platform?" Cynthia asked incredulously.

"Not something that is normally done, I agree, but this platform now has multi functions, and families mean children," Fiona replied.

"Does that mean that Liramor-23 is now open to the public?" Cynthia asked.

"No, of course not," Fiona answered emphatically. "Only those who have business with the mining side of Liramor-23, or with the embassy, are permitted to be in this system.

"You will, of course, need prior permission from either the Liramor Mining Company on Liramor Prime, or from the Union Diplomatic Corps on Terra, to come here. All others will be arrested and charged with trespassing in the system under the mining safety orders of LMC.

"Mining is a dangerous business, as the incident with PV Scarlet Woman showed. The Scarlet Woman was a total loss after being hit by a rock ejected by one of the cages. Sarah Halle, the owner, had been ordered to halt all progress and refused those orders only to be impacted by the rock. She and her entourage had to be rescued after the incident.

"If you have no business being in the Piscium system, stay away. Even Navy vessels need prior authority to be in the system. Considering that this platform has already been attacked three times, any unauthorized vessel will be considered hostile and dealt with accordingly.

"We have already destroyed twenty-two pirate vessels and captured four damaged warships and six supply ships. Do not temp us by entering the system unannounced. You will come to regret it," Fiona finished in an authoritative tone.

"When do we expect the embassy to be in operation?" Cynthia asked.

"That is still up in the air. It will take another two months to complete all the internal repairs to the upper levels of the platform, then we need to move people and make repairs to the lower levels, including expanding the size of the platform. This will not be finished before the fall. As well, we will need to be in permanent contact with the aliens before we can open the embassy. We have no timeline on that, though we have started communicating with them."

"Wait! We are communicating with the aliens?" Cynthia asked, astonished.

"Yes," Fiona confirmed. "Now that we have been able to translate their language, we have started low level communication messages between our two species. We have no idea how long it will be before we move from saying 'hello stranger' to opening negotiations between us."

"What would we be negotiating?" Cynthia asked.

"There is a great deal to consider between our two species, everything from trade, to knowledge, to how to greet each other in person," Fiona replied. "We are only in the preliminary introduction phase as yet. This will take time.

"We will keep the public informed, but no longer through Liramor-23. From now on, the UDC will be the spokespeople for the Terran Union. All requests for information on the aliens will have to go through them. I can tell you now, though, there is very little information to pass on, other than we have contact with them.

"This is not something that will be broadcast to the Union until we actually meet these aliens face-to-face," Fiona ended.

At a pre-selected time, Cdr. Balakrishnan peaked in the conference room and signalled Fiona.

"I apologize, Cynthia, it looks like I am needed," Fiona told the reporter.

"Yes, duty calls," Cynthia replied. "Thank-you for your time, Ms. Marsh."

"And, we are off," Cynthia told Fiona, as she cut the recording.

"How did that sound?" Fiona asked.

"Just what was needed I think. Nice of you to push this onto UDC," Cynthia joked.

"Well, they are now an integral part of the communications that we are having with the Piscium A Society, it is only fair that they shoulder some of the burden," Fiona laughed. "I'll let them know at shift change that they are now responsible."

"I'll do a quick edit and be ready to show this news piece at that time," Cynthia stated, as she walked out of the conference room.

The Fleet Shem, Interstellar space, Three Light Years from the Piscium System

It had been many days now since the arrangement to receive regular news from the home planet had been established. The Fleet Shem was sending messages back and forth to the Emperor's Command Council.

The daily news from the home world was a big hit amongst the members of the Fleet, much to the surprise of the Jurte Pair.

"Why are you so surprised, My Jurte?" asked Mind-Hur Tae, now promoted above the station she once had. She had been made Senior Technical Officer because of how she had handled the messages from the Strangers, as the Emperor was calling them.

"We have been in space for many years now, making our way to The Home Star. News from home is of great importance to those of us in this fleet who may not see the home world for another thirty solar rotations, or more. That we can receive news, not only about the home world, but messages directly from family, is incredible.

"The strangers have given us a great gift, as far as the people are concerned," Mind-Hur said.

"We should not have accepted the invitation to have daily contact with the home world. Now, the people expect, yes, even demand it," Kur-Han stated angrily.

"What's done is done," Sha-Ret intoned. "We cannot change what is. We have to get one of those ships and reverse engineer it."

"I don't know if we can do that," Mind-Hur stated, factually.

"What do you mean we cannot do that?" Kur-Hur spat out testily.

"From what we have seen of their probes when they disappear and reappear, we are unable to understand the science behind it," Mind-Hur informed the pair. "We are actually witnessing them jump in and out of common space, to where and from where we cannot say, but not in our local space. That ability allows them to move great distances if you believe what they have to say, certainly the distance between here and the home world and here and The Home Star.

"Yet, we do not understand the forces necessary to do that. We do not even understand the forces that we are seeing displayed when one of their probes enters common space. The amount of radiated power is phenomenal by our considerations, yet the probes are small, only six mand in length. They should not be able to hold the kind of power that is necessary to bridge space like that. Yet apparently they do.

"We are at a loss to explain that. If we manage to reverse engineer their engines, how do we power them? How do we upsize them to use in our minor ships, or our great ships? Do we even have the power necessary on the great ships to move one of those into and out of common space? I do not think we can reverse engineer their science. Not for some time in the future, we simply have too much we need to understand," Mind-Hur admitted.

"We will not know until we capture one of those probes," Kur-Han murmured angrily. "They always come from a different direction, a different distance from our great ships. They seem to understand that we want to capture one of their probes but are making sure that is not possible, or at least extremely difficult."

"And what would you think would happen if we did capture one of their probes, My Jurte?" Mind-Hur asked. "I for one, would make sure that if an enemy took one of our probes, it would self-destruct."

"It is a risk we have to take," Kur-Han blurted out. "We came so close, two rotations ago, yet the vessel slipped out of our hands and disappeared."

A hologram of Jonin-Tar Rai, the commander of the great ship Mahl-Tar ot Shem, suddenly appeared before them.

"My Jurte, there are ships in front of the fleet that resemble the ships we saw in the images from several rotations ago!" she declared, the image of a group of seven strange ships replacing her visage.

"How far ahead of us are they?" Sha-Ret demanded.

"We are receiving science now, My Jurte," Mind-Hur told them. "They are one mur light cycle (roughly one light minute) in front of us, My Jurte. We are receiving information on their size. They are smaller than our troop transporters, My Jurte."

"How can they be a threat to the great ships of this fleet then?" Kur-Han asked.

"Do not underestimate them, my love," Sha-Ret spoke wisely. "If they are capable of travelling great distances in these ships, and co-ordinating such travel between eight of their vessels, I have no doubt they carry weapons that can be a threat to us."