All That Glitters Ch. 40

"Yes, we have been very interested in the ongoing situation within the human sphere," Mayute replied. "As it is an internal human issue, the Greater Community has not and likely will not, intervene. The Toolend can and will assist in helping to heal those with mental injuries. We now have a compelling case for making use of the members of the Order with psychiatric and medical training. We have already asked this of the home world as well as sending your suggestion for the name change. We here think it is an excellent idea. It should be well received by our superiors."

"I am pleased to think my suggestion has had such an impact. I did not anticipate that at all," Maya stated, blushing.

"Do not sell yourself short, Maya, your suggestion was very useful indeed," Mayute told her. "The home world should let us know within a couple of days how many of us can be sent to help at the hospital. Hopefully, we can use The Trine to bring our people, first here, and then to Planet Varus.

"We will need the permission of the Union to allow our people to support the hospital on Planet Varus. According to Tougrate and Malnad, we have permission from President Serment, from the commander of Sector Fifteen, FAdm. Robert, from the Surgeon General of Sector Fifteen, Cmdre. Dr. Seraph, and from the head of the Psych ward at the hospital, Capt. Dr, Defroe. We would still need the permission of the TGA for more than one or two of our people to go to Planet Varus," erht ended, looking at Ambs. Halten.

"We will need to know the numbers before we can complete that, Ambs. Mayute, but we can let the TGA know that the Toolend have been successful and are wanted and needed at Marlin Naval Base," Halten indicated. "As long as the numbers are not too large and that all are members of the Order of Telepaths, I think we can manage the permission relatively swiftly."

"That would be appreciated." Mayute answered. "This would be our first major joint venture between our peoples. We hope that we can get this moving and show the people of the Union how much we can help them."

It would be a couple of days before the numbers were known but Halten was already working hard to grease the wheels of diplomacy within the UDC and the TGA.

UDC Headquarters, Capital City, Terra, The Sol System

"You saw the request from Ambs. Halten?" Mnst. Charles Ronter asked of his A/Mnst. William Peter.

"Yes, sir," William replied. "We also have the report from Capt. Dr. Defroe at the hospital at Marlin Naval Base. He had high praise for the Toolend who were able to break a patient's catatonic condition within minutes of beginning to work with her. That could be very useful for the many hundreds of severe psychiatric cases the hospital now has because of OP Sandcastle."

"I would allow this to progress myself," Ronter informed Peter. "However, this will be a shot across the bow for the anti-alien leagues popping up all over the Union. We will not make this call ourselves, rather, we should push it through the Senate. I would rather have the nutcases going after the members of the Senate than the various representatives and Ambassadors of the UDC."

"That could take time," Peter informed his boss. "The Senate does not move very swiftly."

"I know. I think I will tie this in with OP Sandcastle," Ronter stated. "The Senate needs to get up off its combined ass and move to the next stage. We might be able to force the issue if we claim the needs of the victims are not being met. We can use public sentiment to push this, as well as informing the President of the Toolend request. I have an appointment with him later this afternoon. I will let him know at that time.

"For now, I would like to set someone up to get things ready to move as soon as we have permission to act. Any suggestions?" the Minister asked.

"Why not use Juanita Invierno?" Peter suggested. "She will be working with the Greater Community here at the Johal Compound as our representative in the Interspecies Consulate in the near future. We should push her off into the deep end and see if she sinks or swims. If she does well, we'll know that she is ready for her new role."

"Good suggestion, let's do that," the Minister agreed. "I'll let you advise her of this one, she and the Interspecies Consulate will fall under your supervision, the ambassadors and their needs will fall under me. I will let you know what the President thinks after I see him this afternoon.

"In that same meeting, we will be going over the follow-on to OP Sandcastle, specifically, what we can do to convince the Alliance to hand over the remainder of our missing people. That will be the next big issue for us here. I will want to see Ambs. Flynet as soon as possible. I will need an update on the situation in the Alliance before I see the President," the Minister stated, closing the meeting.

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

Ambs. Flynet met the A/Mnst. and the Minister half-an-hour later.

"Sir, the Alliance is currently in disarray after our raid. The Landstradt initially attempted to claim that this was just a one-off and that we would not be back. That might have worked if we had not hit all six Alliance planets.

"The Great and Lesser Houses of the Alliance, are run by hardened men who know their business, many of the leaders of the Great Houses being ex-pirates as well.

"The Lesser Houses, too, have some ex-pirates as heads of houses. Regardless, they are all a crafty bunch who know their business and will not be taken in by the Great Houses of the Landstradt's attempt at historical revisionism.

"Fayad Piscium has conducted his own research on the Landstradt and the ongoing situation and he speculates that the Landstradt will likely meet next week, probably as early as Monday on Planet Adenomere, next Tuesday our time. I agree with his assessment. The situation is breaking down in the Alliance, with inflation suddenly running high due principally to the recent loss of slaves. They will not likely be open to losing more slaves.

"I believe that we will have to blockade the Alliance in order to get our people out. Fayad suggests that we wait for the Landstradt to convene and then blockade Planet Adenomere, locking the leaders of the Greater and Lesser Houses on the planet.

"In my opinion, that would get their attention faster than trying to blockade all the Alliance planets. With the damage we recently did to their home defence fleets, Planet Adenomere cannot put up much of a resistance to a large force that could suddenly show up in Adenomere space," Flynet told them.

"I like that idea better than trying to blockade all their planets. The President will like it as well. Now, we will have to pitch it to the Senate as well," Ronter said.

"Why not let the Alliance pitch it to them instead?" Flynet asked.

"Explain," Peter ordered.

"Fayad expects that the Landstradt will conduct a show trial of our captured people, the six unfortunate members who were on the ground when they were overrun," Flynet started. "They will likely broadcast this meeting of the Landstradt and the show trial to all of the Alliance. We still have our Comms pickets in a secluded orbit at Planet Adenomere. We can broadcast their trial to all the Union. That should set a fire under the Senate."

"I like that idea," Peter said. "By the way, do we know why the hell our people were actually on the planet away from the raids?"

"Yes. Adolphus Adenomere, youngest son of Peotre Adenomere, was remotely causing the death of slaves in the vain attempt at stopping the raid. He did not know that he was killing more non-Union slaves than Union slaves as many of the Union slaves already had their slave collars removed. However, the team needed to get there and stop him from continuing these random murders and did so. They stunned the fool and then knocked out the family computer to stop him murdering more innocents when he recovered.

"Unfortunately, their ship was overrun while they were on the ground. They were left behind when Capt. Raymond Clark ordered the ship to leave, stranding him and five Marines," Flynet finished.

"The same Raymond Clark who was just invested with the Presidential Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to the Terran Union for his part in bringing the Pod-Drran into peaceful contact with us?" Mnst. Ronter asked.

"The same, sir. He was the planner behind OP Sandcastle," Flynet confirmed.

"The President is aware?" Peter asked.

"Yes, sir. He knows who was captured," Flynet informed them.

"I'm going to want to speak with Adm. Ramison to see what he is planning in this regard, though I think he is waiting for our input. I like the idea of waiting for the Landstradt to gather then blockading one planet. We should push that," Ronter ended, dismissing the meeting.

Presidential Compound, Capital City, Terra, The Sol System

"Good afternoon, sir," Minister Ronter greeted the President on entering his conference room, being the last to enter.

"Good afternoon, Charles," the President replied. "Let's get down to business shall we. I need to know what is going on in the Alliance and what we can do to facilitate the release of our remaining citizens."

"It is unlikely the Alliance will give up on our remaining citizens, sir," Charles informed him. "The Alliance is going through a bit of a rough patch since the raid. Inflation has turned ugly, fueled by the loss of so many slaves.

"While the actual numbers are small in comparison to the overall numbers of slaves on the Alliance planets, those numbers were pulled from many of the Great Houses, leading to speculation on the collapse of some of them. So far, we have seen seven of the thirty-eight Great Houses showing signs of significant financial difficulty, enough that they could lose their status as Great Houses. Of the remaining thirty-one Great Houses, most are showing some financial difficulty due to the raids.

"In addition, the Lesser Houses are more flexible in how they do business and will likely fair much better over the next few months, bringing speculation of a request by many for Great House status amongst their less fortunate senior peers. This will lead to a shift that could significantly change the makeup of the Landstradt.

"Because of this, the Landstradt would be reluctant to hand over any significant numbers of slaves to us, which means we would have to force their hand.

"We have an indication that the Landstradt will likely have a show trial for the six people they captured during the raid. We are not sure when that would begin, however, we expect the Landstradt to convene on or around Tuesday, our time, next week, sir, meaning the show trial would be conducted during that session sometime in the next week or so," the minister finished.

"So, are you suggesting that we blockade the Alliance?" the President asked pointedly.

"Yes, sir. It is the only thing that will likely make them give up our citizens. However, if I may make a suggestion? Why blockade all the planets when we can Blockade Planet Adenomere while the Landstradt is sitting?

"The Landstradt only meets so often and those meetings are usually not well attended. They are often lucky to get a necessary quorum for any serious business.

"Having said that, it is likely that this meeting will see all of the heads of the Greater and Lesser Houses in attendance. If we conducted our blockade when they were all present on Planet Adenomere, that would disrupt their control over there own houses and businesses, putting much more pressure on the Landstradt to act," Charles advised.

"I like that thinking, Mr. President," Adm. Ramison stated. "We are retaining 500 ships to conduct a blockade of the Alliance. That many ships spread out over six planets means that Alliance ships would have a difficult but not an impossible time getting in and out of the planets. However, that many ships around one planet would effectively shut down that planet, leaving no access."

"What about the show trial?" the President asked. "Is there anything that we could do to bring that to a successful conclusion of getting our people out?"

"Well, sir, the Senate will be reluctant to authorize a blockade of the Alliance. But, the Landstradt will likely broadcast their meeting and the show trial to the Alliance. Our Comms pickets are still at the Alliance planets. We could simply allow the Union to see the trial itself, sir, live minus a few minutes light," Charles offered.

The President smiled. It was not a pleasant smile, rather, one that was quite predatory.

"Damn, I like that idea, Charles. Admiral, make another plan for blockade, one that includes only Planet Adenomere. Charles, you will have our Ambassador to the Alliance ready to petition the Landstradt. I want him to address the Landstradt on our behalf on the first day of the next sitting of the Landstradt," the President ordered. "That gives us four days to prepare, people. Let's get to it."

Adenomere Main Estate, Planet Adenomere, The Adenomere System

Allen had been in Adenomere City for four days now, learning everything there was to know about the new air limo. Aurelia was watching, excited, as the new vehicle settled gently in the roundabout in front of the estate. As soon as it was down, she was running down the steps to the new car. Allen barely had time to get himself out of the pilot's seat and open the rear door for her and her entourage.

The giggling passel of women swiftly entered the rear of the large vehicle with Aurelia and her PA in the front seat looking over the pilot and co-pilot's chairs. Allen climbed back into the pilot's seat and the limo gently left the ground, flying around the estate as the woman talked excitedly in the back.

"Allen, we will need a co-pilot, who would you recommend?" Aurelia asked, surprising Allen. The Masters never asked his opinion on anything.

"I would recommend Kodani, Mistress Aurelia," Allen suggested. "She had previous experience as an air pilot before her family's bankruptcy forced her into a life of slavery."

"Let's get her papers back in order then. I will leave that with you, Allen, make it happen," Aurelia ordered.

Allen smiled, though Aurelia, behind him, couldn't see it. After fifteen minutes of flying around the estate, the limo touched down once again in front of the main door. Jaar was waiting...

"Father-in-law, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" Aurelia asked as she alighted from the limo.

"I was told that there was an unknown aircar flying over the estate, then told that it actually belonged to you?" Jaar stated, looking at Aurelia.

"I just purchased it, my own air limo. It has room for fifteen in the rear and a pilot and co-pilot up front. It is capable of flying five hours at just under Mach before it has to set down to allow the engines to cool down, which means we can fly to the other continent if needed. There is a small galley for a maid to prepare meals should we go for an extended trip and plenty of space in the rear for cargo," an ecstatic Aurelia gushed.

Jaar first smiled then frowned at her. "Please inform us, in future, should you decide to go on a joy-ride around the estate. We wouldn't want to accidentally shoot you down," Jaar admonished, looking toward the vehicle.

Aurelia saw the look. "Would you like to look at it?" she asked, getting a nod from him. They spent the next few minutes going over the limo.

"Our own aircar is not up to this one's standards," Jaar commented. "Do you intend to be at the Landstradt meeting on Monday?" he wanted to know. "If so, may we travel with you?"

"Of course, Father-in-law, you and Marius may travel with me," Aurelia assured him, secretly happy that she would have them in her vehicle as she would be less likely to be attacked.

Arrangements were quickly made to fly to the Landstradt together.

Landstradt HQ, Adenomere City, Planet Adenomere, The Adenomere System

The new limo settled down onto the road ten kilometers from Landstradt HQ, aircars not being permitted to fly within ten km of a shuttle port.

Aurelia was impressed with the limo's capabilities. It had taken more than an hour for her to travel the distance from Adenomere City to the Adenomere Estate when she had originally arrived on Adenomere some six weeks previously. The limo had taken only ten minutes to transport them to the city from the estate. The ride on its wheels was so smooth that they could almost believe they were still in the air. All-in-all, she was pleased with her recent purchase.

Aurelia, Jaar, Marius, and their PAs left the rear of the vehicle when they arrived and moved swiftly into the venue where they were confronted by a scene that had not been seen at the Landstradt in more than fifty years, the full Landstradt in attendance.

Aurelia touched base with her female friends that she had been cultivating since her arrival on Adenomere so many weeks ago. She had been diligent at cultivating the members of all the Greater and Lesser Houses on Adenomere and was also a familiar face with many of the Houses from New Hadria.

A woman approached Cierra and advised her that all Aurelia had asked had been accomplished. Cierra bowed her head respectfully and passed the information to Aurelia a little later, getting a ghost of a smile from her boss.

Aurelia was speaking quietly to all of her acquaintances about the upcoming events of the morning, when she expected many of the Greater Houses to be pushed back by House Adenomere and House Climb, working in tandem. Surprisingly, one of the people she was speaking with was Lady Cynthia Climb, the current matriarch of House Climb, who was opposed to her husband's attempt to destabilize the Landstradt. The term 'Lady' was only bestowed on the House Matriarch and only that of the senior branch of any house.

Lady Climb, and most of the others that Aurelia spoke to, were against a major shift in the Landstradt so soon after the Union raid. The Landstradt needed to project solidarity at this time.

As the time to begin neared, the Patriarchs/Matriarchs of the Great Houses took their seats in the front rows. With two exceptions, Lady Katrynna Handren of New Hadria, and Lady Sylvie Marshall of Planet Surdend, all of them were male. There were five seats for each house, the principle seat for the Patriarch/Matriarch, the seat on his/her left for their PA/Chief of Staff, a seat on the right for the heir apparent, and two seats directly behind the Patriarchs chair for additional advisors, which were more frequently filled by family members, though those seats were not always occupied.

Jaar Adenomere sat in his seat with Korman on his left and Marius on his right. It was the first time that Marius had occupied this seat, which established him as the heir apparent.

Behind Jaar, slightly to his right, sat Aurelia, there to provide her economic and political input, which Jaar had learned to value. On her left was her PA, Cierra. A few other women sat behind their patriarchs, mostly the wives, the Ladies of the houses, though a few were daughters or, like Aurelia, daughters-in-law.

Behind the Great Houses, the 120 Lesser Houses sat, in the same configuration of five seats per house. Behind them sat the general audience, those members of the houses that could not sit with the Patriarch, members of the public, mostly politicians, and members of the media, those media types not permitted on the floor.

The Chair banged his gavel and brought the Landstradt to order. He took the roll, for the first time in nearly fifty years, the Landstradt was fully attended.

The minutes of the last meeting were read out and adopted. Then they got down to new business, starting with new house business.

Jaar stood and was acknowledged by the Chair.

"It is with immense pleasure that I name my son, Marius Adenomere, as my heir apparent," he began, formally acknowledging his son. "I would also name Aurelia Gordon, soon to be my daughter-in-law, as Lady Adenomere, in the absence of my late wife."