All That Glitters Ch. 38

"I could get used to this kind of sumptuous living but I need to make a lot more money first," Hanalei quipped. "Not sure if it is worth it though," she finished with a smile.

"Let's go meet our hosts then," Fayad suggested.

They all went up one level to the VIP conference room to find Liea, Raymond, and Capt. Hellen Degault.

"All settled in?" Liea asked.

"Yes," Junelliya admitted. "I never saw your staterooms before though, so I am a little surprised at how nice they are."

"Well, until your ship arrives, you will be with us," Raymond told them. "In fact, we will likely take The Trine onboard when it arrives, so you will still be with us probably until the end of this operation in a little more than a month-and-a-half."

"Long time to be on a ship," Fayad said. "What will we do while we are here?" Fayad asked, more for his wives than for himself. He would be busy.

"You can always participate in the ship's routines," Liea suggested. "We are up everyday to exercise at 06:00hrs with Kim and Ululla."

"Oh, the killer duo!" Junelliya laughed. "We see them quite frequently on Liramor-23, I'm not sure what it will be like to have them every day."

"What else could we do on the ship?" Hanalei asked.

"Study," Liea told her. "Most of the crew is working on their careers studying for the next rank up, working to complete online courses provided by the navy. Raymond and I have been doing the same while we are onboard, though our studies are aimed more at understanding our current roles in society.

"I hear that you are quite good in the kitchen," Liea stated. "In fact, I have been to one of your evening meals before, your Anuuran spices and cooking styles would be of interest to Riley. You could always trade recipes with her."

"So, other than to tend to our daughters, there will not be much for us to do while we are on the ship?" Hanalei asked.

"Basically," Raymond confirmed. "You would be best to take up something to study. Liea and I can help you in your new role in life, being the new rich kid on the block."

That brought giggles from the ladies.

"Why did you give us two of the smaller staterooms?" Fayad asked.

"We thought that Hanalei would have hired a PA by now," Liea admitted.

"Not yet, the ones I've interviewed just didn't sit right with me for some reason," Henadi admitted.

"Nothing wrong with that. You are going to be working very closely with your PA, so you need to be comfortable with whomever you choose," Liea explained. "Whenever you make your choice, have them come and see Lissette and Lynn. They can talk shop with your choice to help them integrate better into this level. There are really very few people who have any experience at this kind of executive level, so practical tips from our PA's will help."

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks," Hanalei said, giving Liea a hug.

The ship jumped later that day, making several jumps before it arrived in the Punarjanm system.

Malihan Regional Hospital, Harn City, Green's World, The Harn System

Stephanie Brighton stepped off the shuttle into the heat of a new world. She was on Green's World because Malihan Hospital was one of the best at medical regeneration and that was her intended field of work when she finished her internship.

A staff member of the hospital was at the customs office of the shuttle port to greet the three new interns coming to Malihan Hospital.

"Good morning all, I am Marvin Pental, fourth year medical student. Welcome to Green's World. I am to escort you to the hospital where you will be conducting your internship.

"Two of you are here to work specifically in our maternity ward as you are going to specialize in obstetrics. The other will be specializing in medical recovery of lost limbs. If you would follow me, I will take you to meet our head of interns, Dr. Morina Holdar.

Pental helped the three ladies to settle in and then escorted them to their respective wards. As Stephanie walked onto the ward she had been directed to, she received a surprise.

"Dr. Kayl-Ur!" she called out; hands extended for a hug.

"Well, well. Stephanie, you made it here!" Kayl replied.

"My fellow doctors and nurses, this is Stephanie Brighton, Intern, who we met at Denders Resort on Terra. I find her to be like her name, bright," Kayl told her fellow Pod-Drran.

"I remember her," replied one of the nurses. "Welcome Stephanie to the world of the intern. I am told it is pure torture and am quite happy that I studied under the Pod-Drran system and not the humans system."

That brought laughter from the Pod-Drran that was abruptly cut off at the sound of a new voice.

"I heard that!" said Dr. Holdar as she entered the room. "Let it be known that you will not be exempt from the horrors of human internship," she told them with a flashy-toothed smile that brought shudders to the Pod-Drran.

The Pod-Drran had larger canines than humans did. The baring of teeth was considered a threat display and not a smile. Human smiles tended to unnerve the Pod-Drran. Human smiles with 'evil' intent, were definitely considered a threat display...

"Stephanie Brighton, you will be shadowing this group as you have indicated that you want to specialize in medical recovery, as well as doing your normal intern work. You will, unfortunately, be a rather busy young lady for the next few months," Dr. Holdar told her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and I include the Pod-Drran in those descriptions, welcome to your year of hell. You have all indicated that you wish to specialize in medical recovery of lost limbs. However, you will also have to be signed off on all other aspects of medical work in order to complete your internship. Which means you will be working on different wards for two months at a time to complete that work, with the exception of medical recovery, which will be a four month internship.

"That means, instead of completing your internship in one year, you will be spending fourteen months as an intern. You will be expected to complete most of your requirements for medical recovery procedures while in your internship, however, there will be things that you need to learn about and deal with that might not come up during your internship. As such, you will need to complete those parts of your requirements before you can work independently as a doctor specializing in medical recovery, even after your internship.

"The exception to all of this, are the Pod-Drran, who are already qualified doctors and nurses under their own system. As such, they will be dedicating themselves totally to the medical recovery program and specifically to how it can be used by the Pod-Drran. Because of this, your internship program has now been turned around. Instead of getting into the recovery program at the end of your internship, you will be involved right at the start, due principally to the requirements of the Pod-Drran.

"Because Pod-Drran DNA is different from human DNA, you will be given the unique opportunity to be at the beginning of a new medical recovery program. You will have a leg up on all other human doctors and nurses that are currently in this program as they have never been involved in the beginning of a new process.

"Where the medical recovery process is involved, Pod-Drran DNA differs from human DNA in one major factor; because the Pod-Drran are effectively a warrior race, their ability to self heal is on a factor of at least twenty percent higher than human healing. That must be taken into account with the new processes being developed for the Pod-Drran.

"What does that mean for you as interns? It means that the Pod-Drran patients will require 24/7 monitoring during their recovery to ensure that DNA factors can be included at the proper time, in order that we do not have to conduct an amputation and restart the program on any specific patient.

"Our initial Pod-Drran patient will be Ambassador Kome-Nar Sai-Ro," Dr. Holdar indicated Kome-Nar to all, though it was clear from his missing arm that he was in fact a patient.

"He will not be the only one. More Pod-Drran are scheduled to arrive in the next few weeks, some with missing hands, arms, feet, legs, or combinations thereof. All of whom have recently lost their appendages and have been sponsored by their government for this procedure.

"The principal direction for Malihan Hospital is to convert our human system into medical strategies for use by the Pod-Drran, who will bring these techniques back to their home world.

"For the rest of today, we will conduct theory on the processes. Tomorrow, we will begin with walking the ward to meet with and see the results of various patients in various levels of their recovery. I ask our Pod-Drran counterparts to please be patient with those in the process. They have never seen Pod-Drran before and the medical process tends to make patients a little irritable.

"From this point on, you will be working sixteen to eighteen hour days. Get what sleep you can when you can. Forget partying until you have completed your training. There will simply be no time for it.

"You will be on the wards every morning and in the classroom every afternoon and evening. It will be a grueling experience for all of you. Welcome to intern hell..."

Military Control, Pallanders-4, The Punarjanm System

The Wanderer came into the system not far from Pallanders-4 and requested a parking orbit near the shipyard. Raymond and the members of the ASTF transferred to the shipyard via shuttle, ready to hit the ground running as soon as they were aboard. They entered the main conference room in Military Command.

"Good-afternoon, Liana, how have you been doing?" Raymond asked, giving her a hug.

"To tell the truth, Raymond, I've missed your body," she told him with a smile, noting that he was in uniform again. She upped a questioning eyebrow at him.

"We'll see what we can do about that while I am here," he replied with a smile of his own. "I have been reactivated for the duration of OP Sandcastle," he answered her unspoken question.

"I want to introduce you to the key members of the ASTF. First is Cdr. Franz Teal, he was in overall charge of the ASTF as the only full-time intelligence officer we had. Then there is Capt. Ronald Hentor, Capt. Amelia Tan, and myself, our senior tactics and planning officers.

"Next, we have someone you may remember, Dr. Heyya, who is our medical specialist for Operation Sandcastle. She will be coordinating our strategy for bringing medical specialists into the operation without telling them what is going on until the last moment.

"Then we have Dr. Mark Hatten, who is a communications specialist coordinating the comms frequencies on the ICS. He will be dedicated to us until after Sandcastle is completed to ensure that we have uninterrupted interplanetary comms during the operation.

"You may remember Fayad and his wife, Junelliya, who have been with the ASTF from the start. Her abilities will be invaluable to Sandcastle. Until today, Fayad and Cdr. Teal have been in command of the ASTF. That command now transfers to you.

"Then we have our computer specialist, Luc Branchette, who we forcefully drafted from the Veterans Security Company on Liramor Prime and who has found a method to defeat the command controls on the slave collars worn by all slaves in the Alliance. Without this ability, we would not be able to take any of our people from Alliance planets without their being killed by the explosive bundle currently on most slave collars.

"Speaking of slaves, I would like to introduce to you this wonderful lady named Ria, who is a former slave to Aurelia Gordon. With Miss Gordon's help, she escaped from slavery and is now helping us as a Subject Matter Expert on slavery, from the point of view of the slave.

"And finally, we have Philaman Phargas, ex-pirate and slave trader turned state's evidence, basically acting to save his own miserable hide. However, the information he has passed on to us about the activities of pirates and the slave trade has been invaluable.

"Along with myself, they and their staff, have been the ones responsible for the planning and running of Operation Sandcastle up to this time," Raymond finished.

"Welcome everyone, it is a pleasure to see so many familiar faces again," Dostier exclaimed. "I have missed you all and am pleased that we can once again be together, even for a short while.

"We have a busy three weeks ahead of us. Ships have already begun coming into the system. Tomorrow or the next day, when we have most of the ships in the system, I will conduct a briefing for the captains. Then we will begin to practice in earnest.

"Raymond, you and your people will conduct the brief in my name. We will begin slotting the ships into the groups they need to be in for this practice immediately. Once the practice has been conducted to my satisfaction, we will request permission to put Operation Sandcastle into effect.

"The operation will run over the space of twenty-four hours. At the end of that time, we will have as many of our people off the Alliance planets as we can get. From that point on, the Union will use diplomatic pressure and the threat of blockade and/or war to get the remainder of our people home. We get one shot at doing this. We need to make sure it is a successful shot.

"Right, lets end this for now. Lets see the quarter master for the station and get some accommodations for all of you," Dostier ordered.

"And you have brought me my next captain," Liana said with a smile, nodding to Capt. Damyanti Balakrishna. "Welcome captain, your ship is waiting for you in one of the cages outside. You will immediately take over and prepare the ship for trials which, due to circumstance, will be abridged. You must make sure you are ready to participate in OP Sandcastle. Your ship will be the command ship for the raid on New Hadria. You do not have much time. Go check out your new command Damyanti," Liana ordered.

NS Saraswati, Parking Orbit Pallanders-4, The Punarjanm System

Damyanti walked up the corridor to the reception area to be greeted by her Number 2, her Ex O, and the Boatswain.

"Good morning, Captain, and welcome aboard," a Cdr. said as the Boatswain piped Damyanti aboard and announced: "Arriving; NS Saraswati," informing the crew that they had a captain.

"Good to see you again, Hal," Damyanti said to the Boatswain, Harold (Hal) Gigamy, who was an old acquaintance of Damyanti. "I never expected to see you as the Boatswain of my command."

"Good to have you back in my Command Chain, ma'am. It's nice to work with people you know."

"I am Cdr. Grace Lindale, your Ex O," Lindale introduced herself to the new captain.

"Good to meet both of you. Ex O, I need to inform the crew of the newest events and our purpose in them. Let's go to the Battle Bridge for this, shall we," Damyanti indicated to the others to proceed her. It wasn't long before they were on the Battle Bridge and Damyanti had an all-ships link open.

"Attention crew of the NS Saraswati, this is your captain, Capt. Damyanti Balakrishna speaking. Some of you may have heard rumours as to what is going on. I assure you; they are all false," Damyanti waited patiently for the giggles around the Battle Bridge to end.

"This ship is going to take part in Operation Sandcastle. We have one week to complete our trials vice the traditional three weeks we would normally have. The reason for this is specific. This ship will be the command ship of a raid against the Alliance of Planets. We are going to get as many of our kidnapped citizens back from the Alliance as we can."

Once again, Damyanti had to wait patiently as the cheers rang out.

"Our task is going to be difficult, more so because we will be the command ship of our Task Force. I need all of you to work hard over the next week to quickly certify this ship for service, and then work even harder over the next two weeks as we prepare for the raid. We need to be ready. Our failure will mean that kidnapped citizens of the Union will remain slaves in the hands of the Alliance. We cannot allow this.

"I expect the best from all of you over the next few weeks but that is nothing new for a new captain to say. What is new is that those we pull out of slavery will see you as heroes. Those citizens, now in the hands of the Alliance, will need heroes to look up to. Don't let them down. Let's give them the heroes they need.

"Senior officers and Section Heads in the Captain's Ready Room in one hour. That is all," Damyanti ended.

"Boatswain, you will be there as well, Hal," she ordered, getting a nod from him. "I know the mantra is 'one man, one kit', however, I would appreciate if you could get a couple of ratings to take my kit to my quarters?"

Hal smiled and made arrangements. Damyanti moved from the Battle Bridge to the main bridge of the ship. Her ship! Where she sat gently in the Captain's Chair on the Captain's Deck, which was raised slightly above operations, so the Captain could see everything. She sighed and smiled as she sat for the first time on a ship that was completely hers to command...

Adenomere Estate, Planet Adenomere, Adenomere System

Aurelia was working hard to get her staff up to the standards she wanted. She had acquired the services of a cook from the household and was bringing in her own food for her kitchen. The first thing she had noted was the fact that the Adenomere really skimped on food for their slaves, even the household slaves, who were generally fed better in most estates. A quick examination of the menu showed that the slaves were barely above a starvation diet.

Food was used to quell unruly slaves, and to keep slaves subservient. Most masters barely fed their slaves enough to do their work, the Adenomeres were even worse. Many of their slaves worked themselves to death from starvation. The women of the household staff barely got more than 900 calories a day, well below the minimum limit of 1,200 calories, the men fared better but at 1,400 calories were still below minimal standards.

Since she could control the calories for her staff, she immediately raised the level to minimum standards. She dared not raise it above that as their general health standards would improve too conspicuously. Regardless, her people adored her for the effort she put in on their behalf and worked hard to show their appreciation.

Their new uniforms, while in the Adenomere colours, made her staff stand out whenever they went about the estate. In accordance with Aurelia's instructions, her staff were always courteous and kind to the other staff. It did not take long for that policy to pay dividends with the other staff who actually began to look forward to dealing with Aurelia's personal staff.

Aurelia now had information about the estate and its condition coming to her from all household staff. Aurelia worked hard to gain the trust of that staff, who she rarely scolded. She was well liked by the household slaves, so much so that her activities were being noticed by the Masters themselves.

"What have you done?" Jaar Adenomere demanded of his son after receiving a report from his PA Korman.

"I had to punish Clive," Marius replied.

"Punish him! You damn near fucking killed him!" Jaar shouted. "He may not survive! Why?"

"I wanted him to do something for me," Marius explained. "The fool had the temerity to say that he 'would get to my request as soon as he had finished with Mistress Aurelia's'! I had to punish him."

"Korman tells me that you hit his brain stem six times! Even if he survives, he could be a vegetable! Now we will have to purchase a new slave or bring in one of the field hands and train him for housework!" Jaar shouted.

"I'll pay for the new slave," Marius stated, to nullify his father's wrath.