All That Glitters Ch. 41

"I hear that you and your mate have made quite a name for yourselves in the Union," the Kumaroe stated, smiling to show he was pleased.

"Our training session on Pod-Drran physiology and medical techniques is required study now for any human doctor/nurse who is working with the Interspecies Community. That means we have a large audience for our lectures, My Kumaroe," Kayl-Ur replied with a bow.

"As you should as a member of the famous House of Ur," the Kumaraie stated.

"Pod-Saar will be connected to the ICS net by the end of the next human year," the Kumaraie informed the staff to much joy, as many had been away from home with only daily e-mails for communications for well over two months now.

"By then, you will likely all be back on Pod-Saar and providing new Pod-Drran patients with the skills you are currently learning. However, that means if you have an issue, you will be able to ask the experts here at Malihan Hospital and quickly receive answers," the Kumaraie finished.

Kayl-Ur went to Kome-Nar's room and opened the door. "Do you have time for a visitor, Kome-Nar?" she asked of her patient.

"Who would want to visit me?" he grumbled, then sat upright when he saw his mate.

"Nar-Tre! How are you here?" he exclaimed.

"I am escorting VIPs, my mate," she replied.

"Which VIPs?" Kome-Nar asked, while taking a forehead rub from his mate. He visibly relaxed in her presence, which, brought amusement to Kayl-Ur.

"That would be us," the Kumaraie stated as she walked into the room.

Kome-Nar once again bolted upright, only to be held in place by a hand motion from the Kumaraie. "You are under medical supervision, Kome-Nar. Be a good patient and remain relaxed," the Kumaraie smiled.

"We are here to see if your progress bodes well for our people," the Kumaroe informed him.

They looked at Kome-Nar's half-formed arm, which was a sickly green colour that they didn't like.

"His arm's colour will return to it when his arm is completely grown," Hend-Ur informed them, seeing the direction of their gaze and understanding its portent. "Until then, his body is using its resources to replace bones, muscle, connecting tissue, blood vessels, and nerves, leaving the skin colour till the last."

Hend noted the relief on the Kumar-Pair's faces when they were informed of this and understood what it meant. Deformity in the Pod-Drran was frowned on. Skin discolouration was one of the easiest deformities to note and the most difficult to hide.

"It will be better in a couple of more months, My Kumaraie," Kayl-Ur assured them. "The process is progressing as best as can be expected, though there were some irregularities based on the Pod-Drran genome. That has been noted and corrected and will not be an issue going forward for other recipients of this process.

"We have begun the process for two more of our people now that Kome-Nar has progressed this far. They will, paradoxically, be faster in their process than Kome-Nar was, only because we now understand the differences between human and Pod-Drran physiology during the procedure."

The Kumar-Pair thanked the staff for their efforts in learning this new technique which would benefit the Pod-Drran as a people.

The Kumar-Pair was shown around the rest of the hospital, with Kayl-Ur and Hend-Ur interpreting what they were being shown, much of the technology was new to the Pod-Drran but not to the experiences of Kayl and Hend.

When they entered the maternity ward, Kayl asked if the Kumaraie would like to use the maternal imaging systems to see inside her womb. The Kumar-Pair were intrigued.

The process was swift and clearly showed the developing fetuses, providing a suitable 3D image for the couples comps. They were very pleased with the results. The Kumar-Pair made inquiries about access to the equipment, the type of which did not exist on Pod-Saar.

The Kumar-Pair left some hours later, well satisfied with their trip to Green's World. They were pleased with the ongoing results of Kome-Nar's medical treatments. They had witnessed and had proof of the medical imaging systems that they now had a source for, the Green Family. They had made several business deals with the Green Family and had met with and invited President Colston for a reciprocal visit to Pod-Saar in the near future.

However, their most treasured item was the images of their four future children that they had shown to the astonished Kumir-Rai/Ro, the bodyguards who would be children's future guards. They were fascinated by the images.

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

"We have to do something about the state we are in," Donald Kittering, Patriarch of House Kittering from Surdend, called from the floor as the afternoon session got underway.

"What would you suggest, sir?" the Chair asked.

"Why don't you ask Lady Adenomere," Master Kittering sneered. "You seem to hold her opinion above all of our own!"

"Lady Adenomere has not speculated on anything in this Landstradt," the Chair replied. "Everything she has commented on has been well thought out and well spoken. She has not had to shout over other members of the Landstradt to voice her opinion. Her actions, thus far, have shown us all why Jaar Adenomere entitled her as Lady Adenomere.

"Who here among the other Great Houses can speak in the same manner? Who here among the other Great Houses is speaking for the Landstradt vice for themselves alone? Who here is setting an example to follow, other than Lady Adenomere. Your comments, sir, show just how much you fear Lady Adenomere and what she might do to the Landstradt," the Chair finished.

"She is barely eighteen! She should not be the head of a house!" Kittering returned.

"I would remind the Landstradt that women are named adults at age eighteen for the purpose of marriage, while men are not named adults until they are twenty-one. While it is unusual for a person under the age of thirty-one to be named the head of a house, it is not unheard of. Lady Katrynna Handren comes to mind, as do the Ladies Yunki.

"While there are only four houses that are run by Matriarchs, two of those houses, House Handren and House Marshal, are two of the strongest houses in the Landstradt. I suspect that House Adenomere will also continue to be a strong house under the stewardship of Lady Adenomere. While the Yunki Clan will take time to retrieve its former glory, the Yunki twins are determined to make it a truly Great House once again. We will have to wait and see how that works out for them.

"Your own house, sir, though a Great House, is not one of the stronger houses in the Landstradt. You have no place to comment on the issues of House Adenomere nor House Yunki," the Chair scolded.

That comment brought out a split in the house, showing the divide between the Great Houses and the Lesser Houses. The Chair once again gavelled down the uproar, attempting to bring the Landstradt back to normal business.

"We still have the issue of what to do about the seven Great Houses that have been singled out as in a desperate situation," the Chair reminded the delegates. Before he could say anything, the Comms Tech, off to the Chair's left, got his attention.

"What now?" he demanded.

"Sir, we have a vid request to address the Landstradt from Ambassador Flynet of the Union," a tech reported.

"Leave him to flounder!" someone shouted, other members agreeing with him.

Lady Adenomere stood, bringing quiet once more to the floor. The Chair nodded to her, giving her permission to speak.

"A request to address the Landstradt has been sent by the Union. We are all wondering what the Union intends, why not ask their ambassador?" she quietly stated.

Mei Yunki stood. "I second that motion, Chair."

"Very well, is there any in opposition to hearing what the ambassador has to say?" the Chair asked, only getting a few naysayers.

Flynet's image was put up on the main monitor. "Thank-you for allowing me to address the Landstradt," he began. "You have all asked why the Union did what it did, why we conducted this raid. The answer is quite simple really. The Alliance of planets, its politicians, and the members of this Landstradt have, for the past twenty-four years, refused to admit that they were holding Union citizens as slaves.

"Until recently, we had no proof of our citizens being held nor of their where abouts, assuming they were deceased. Union citizens visiting the alliance, were not usually allowed outside the capital cities of most of the Alliance planets, and mostly restricted to three planets of the Alliance: Adenomere, Gaetan's Planet, and New Hadria.

"About five years ago, we managed to get some verified intel on our citizens. The numbers that had been taken startled us. With the information we received, we estimated that there were over 500,000 Union citizens held illegally as slaves on Alliance planets. We worked hard to gain more intel on the location of those slaves but it was difficult to work on Alliance planets. We finally decided to work with the information that we did have.

"With no official support from the Alliance as to the whereabouts of our Citizens, we were left with only one option, to conduct this raid.

"We regret the loss of life, on both sides, that occurred during this raid. But we now have irrefutable proof that the Alliance was illegally holding our citizens and lying about the fact to us. The recent raid freed 218,525 slaves, a full seventy-five percent of which, or 163,894, were Union Citizens. The remainder had, naturally, claimed to be Union citizens in order to flee their status as slaves. They have requested, and been granted, asylum by the Union. They will not be returning to the Alliance.

"Many of those we freed were held in the most deplorable conditions, for which, we have confiscated the funds of all of the houses of the Landstradt held in Union banks, to be used as compensation for our citizens. Any funds remaining after the fact, will be returned to those houses. I assure the Landstradt, that only those houses from which we have liberated Union citizens, will suffer action against their funds.

"The Union media has shown images, and commented extensively of the conditions the slaves were held in. When the citizens of the Union saw the state of those who had been held as slaves, the words being bandied about were 'restitution', 'justice', and 'war'. There is little we can do to quell the current state of Union citizen unrest against the Alliance.

"However, there is something that the Alliance can do to mitigate future actions forced on it by our citizen's anger. That would be to release the remaining Union citizens held as slaves for repatriation to the Union," Flynet could not continue as the Landstradt broke out in agitation over the request.

"You have claimed that we have held your people illegally!" Someone shouted. "But we have the right to hold slaves on Alliance planets." That got a chorus of agreements from the other Landstradt members.

"The Union does not dispute your right to hold slaves, fools!" Flynet thundered. "However, the Union citizens that you have been holding were kidnapped and then forced into slavery by pirates at the threat of their lives. This was murder, kidnapping, and extortion on a huge scale, one that Union can not and will not tolerate any longer.

"On any planet, Union or Alliance, extortion, kidnapping, and murder are crimes. The scale of the murder and kidnappings is enormous, 500,000+ of our citizens taken as slaves over twenty-four years! Tens of thousands killed outright during the attacks.

"The Landstradt is aware of these acts as many of you are ex-pirates or even currently working as pirates. The Landstradt cannot say to us that they were not aware of these acts by pirates nor that they were unaware that the Union citizens were being forced into slavery, under extortion, at the very real threat to their lives!

"These pirate syndicates are working under Letters of Mark by the Alliance, ultimately providing much needed manpower to support your slave labour force. You can no longer hide behind the laws of the Alliance, or behind platitudes.

"Your actions are unsupportable. Your treatment of these people while in your dubious care, absolutely deplorable. The Union has already acted against the Alliance once. It is ready to act again if necessary.

"I request permission to personally address the Landstradt and to begin negotiations for the freedom of our people. Failure on the part of the Landstradt to return our citizens will bring swift and defined actions from the Union. You have been warned," Flynet stated forcibly.

The Landstradt sat silently. Wondering what it could do.

"Ambassador Flynet," the Chair began, "when would you be willing to address the Landstradt?"

"At your convenience, Chair," Flynet replied.

"Very well, we ask that you present yourself tomorrow afternoon to address the Landstradt. This will give the Landstradt time to deal with some of the issues and problems now before us," the Chair proposed. "Your person and those of any staff you will bring will be inviolate, your safety assured."

"That is acceptable," Flynet answered and closed the link.

"Tech, do we have a source for this broadcast?" the Chair asked immediately.

"It came from orbit, sir," the tech replied. "The broadcast was in the form of a tight beam transmission directed to a low tech comms relay satellite. The unit is not capable of determining the location from which the transmission occurred. The time lags from the ambassador during the transmission indicate that the ship that transmitted the signal was within a quarter light-second of the satellite, sir, providing no discernible time lag during the conversation."

"They will likely have left our space then, or will shortly," the Chair mused. "Very well, we need to continue with some of the issues in front of the Landstradt. Let us return to the issue of the seven Great Houses from this morning.

"As the Landstradt needs to provide a united front to the Union, we need to settle the issue of these seven houses immediately," the Chair stated.

Armstrong Gordon stood to speak. "The Chair recognizes Master Gordon."

"Chair, House Adenomere and House Gordon have come to an agreement. We have settled on an amount to be paid and House Adenomere has granted time to complete this transaction," Armstrong Gordon intoned.

"Lady Adenomere?" the Chair asked.

"During our extended dinner, House Adenomere contacted the three houses that were not supported in this morning's session, and came to a suitable agreement with House Gordon, House Palay, and House Pendar, Chair," Aurelia stated formally.

"May the Landstradt know of the agreement that has been made, Lady Adenomere?" the Chair asked.

"House Adenomere will provide the Chair with a copy of the agreements between these three houses. I would ask that the Chair keep these documents private unless one or more of these houses defaults on the agreement, sir," Aurelia informed the Landstradt. She gave papers to a runner who brought it to the Chair.

After swiftly reading the documents, the Chair nodded. "Very well, Lady Adenomere, so long as the houses in question do not default on this agreement, the Landstradt will keep it private. We shall consider the question of the seven houses resolved, with all seven houses maintaining their positions as Great Houses and voting members of the Landstradt. The Landstradt does not need to know the conditions of the agreement other than that the conditions have been agreed to by all parties."

Armstrong Gordon stood once more. The Chair gave him permission to speak.

"Sir, it has become clear to me that I need to step aside as Patriarch of House Gordon. I nominate my son and heir, Miles Randolph Gordon as the new Patriarch of House Gordon."

"Does anyone contest this action?" the Chair asked, not surprised by Armstrong's action as it had been one of the conditions for Lady Adenomere's support for House Gordon.

No one contested the action as there was only one branch of House Gordon, Armstrong having no brothers to oppose him.

Armstrong hugged his eldest son, stepped back to take a place in one of the chairs behind him in acknowledgement to the succession. He was now in a position of advisor, though all in the Landstradt suspected that Miles would not likely accept any advice his father offered this day.

Miles stood, "Members of the Landstradt, I name my eldest son, John William Gordon as heir apparent to House Gordon. As he is only nineteen, he may not sit at my right hand until he is of age."

Miles turned and pointed to his son in the bleachers, who rose and bowed, to acknowledge the changes in his life.

The Landstradt rose and applauded the succession, acknowledging a successful, swift, and bloodless transition of power, something that usually occurred only after the death of the Patriarch and only when the heir was uncontested. In recent years, that was not a common occurrence. Successions were often bloody affairs.

The action by Armstrong also quelled any inquiry about the terms of the agreement. They all now suspected what had happened. None of them were about to openly oppose the actions of what they now knew was a very formidable and very powerful Lady Adenomere, despite her tender years. Formidable indeed if she could require that Armstrong Gordon step down as Patriarch of House Gordon...

"Lady Adenomere?" Korman whispered from beside her.

"Mr. Korman, my father has been making serious errors in judgement for some time now," Aurelia explained. "He needed to be removed from his position as Patriarch.

"If I had left him in that position, I would have had to fight him tooth and nail for the rest of his life. For better or worse, I am now Lady Adenomere. I can no longer support him in his position as Patriarch of House Gordon. Because I could not support him, he had to go."

"Lady Adenomere, did you orchestrate the arrest of Jaar Adenomere?" Korman asked.

"Mr. Korman, I did remind Jaar to find out where those spy programs on the house computers were going. Did he even try?" she asked.

"He did, Lady, however, we were unable to find the source," he admitted.

"That should have been a major tip-off, Mr. Korman. As soon as we get back to the estate, we will wipe those remaining items from our computer system and we will find out where the information is or was being sent," Aurelia instructed, getting a nod of acknowledgement from Korman.

"I am not admonishing your actions, Lady Adenomere," Korman informed her. "It just seems that all of this is a little too convenient. Others will think so as well."

"Yes, and they will seek to determine for themselves the answer to those questions, Mr. Korman," Aurelia replied. "They will look for damming evidence on our house computers or they will manufacture such evidence if they cannot find it. If they can spy on our computers, they can also place items on those computers. We must act to close them off from our House records or my control over House Adenomere will be lost."

She got a nod from Korman insuring his support.

The Chair brought the Landstradt back to the issue of the day, the recent raids and their aftermath.

"The loss of so many slaves around the Alliance has significantly affected the Alliance as a whole. We must resolve what we should do going forward. Does anyone wish to comment?" the Chair asked.

Many stood. The Chair noted the list and indicated that he would go down the list in order of Great and Lesser Houses in alphabetic order, his list of names coming up on the monitor behind him to his right.

Most that stood, simply ranted and raved about the loss of slave labour and the significant increase in the price of slaves. They all demanded that something be done to cut the costs of acquisition of new slaves.