Aurora, Wayward Pt. 02

Every system has a military capability; some are smaller in number because of the population. You have to have crews. The Home Guard can help bring in fleets from one system to another under attack within minutes if needed. This goes back to the pendants on bracelets these colony leaders have. They can call for assistance even if communications are being jammed. This is psychic communication."

Amanna Freeden looked at her, "You are always talking about Jack. What about Johnathan?"

Astra laughed, "I have only been with Johnathan for 35 years. He is more mellow and less intense that Jack unless he sees something like Black-ops units being covertly deployed into your system. When he confronted the Terran President and told her he was releasing her husband, brother, and brother's wife's involvement in the matter. It did not end well.

The woman took her own life so she did not have to sit in judgment of her own family. Right in front of him. From what I heard her husband soon followed suit while her brother and his wife tried to flee before being captured.

Litigation is pending. He is not slow to react but he likes to have all of the facts in front of him. Then he will go hunting the corruption to the core. I do love him, but Jack was my first and longest male lover.

The only one I have ever called my husband. That is a marriage term that you are not accustomed too. Lifelong commitment and I was with him 850 years. He was 26 when we met."

She sighed, "We know what marriage is and it occurs with some same-sex female partners in our society but males are barred. Because of the 12 to 1 gap had to be set up to be free to move from woman to woman to try and fix the population imbalance. We tried the old polygamy but the fact was the needs of a number of women were still not being met. Then there were the unfound birth defects that had many infertile."

Astra smiled, "The Drakor blood can correct infertility, a lot of your diseases, and most birth defects including things like missing ovaries. You sent one woman with him who got a shot of his blood and she grew her missing ovaries."

The Drisen Governor looked up and asked, "Does that make her a hybrid?!"

Astra shook her head, "No, it does increase her Drakor DNA percentage to match his but the level of change inside her is under half that. The life expectancy of the individual who gets blood like that is between 100-150 of your years.

If we get the poison out of your systems. Our medical beds can do that, but being on these worlds will just re-contaminates people. That is one of the reasons for moving you to a better world, why it is a good idea."

The Drisen governor looked at her, "What is the safest way for us to resume mining on our worlds?"

Astra sighed, "You asked for the safest way. Get the Terrans to send you terraformers that turn the planets from oxygen ripe environments and make them barren rock. The worlds are unfit for humans, or Penans if you will, to live upon.

Then use AI units in MIDGE's; those are mining machines with no atmosphere in them to mine the material and store it in safe containers for shipping after separating out the sulfur. We sent 20 MIDGE's out with Rocan to work analysis of that system's asteroid belts and gas giants."

The Ridan Governor looked up, "20 of them, I thought the AI asked for 2. You mentioned sending one per ship out?"

She nodded, "We gave her one per ship for your survey and they can keep them."

Amanna spoke again, "There were only 19 battleships."

Astra nodded, "We gave her the series V centipede she asked for. With that, she can start building ships capable of supporting humans working inside of them naturally. She has some terrain designs to draw from.

You sent a structural engineer along so she will likely help in tweaking and revamping them to be Penan designs. Ships with inertial dampeners that can go at 6x FLT speeds. Currently, she is limited to 5x with humans onboard.

Those ships inertial dampeners were never upgraded to support humans traveling aboard at maximum speed. They were doing colony support and colony farming ships are restricted to 5x speed because of plant's insects, and animals that cannot handle the stress."

She looked at her, "What does this ID device do?"

She tossed up the images from the airframe manufacturer's death flight for all of them to watch.

Astra looked at the shocked group, "That was an airframe manufacturer who told Jack he did not know airframes and better inertial dampeners were not needed. He died for his beliefs. That almost happened to Rocan because of the failure to model out your test system for how fast it was going.

Aurora told us she kept saying the design was too flawed and the ship would not hold together. She ensured he was in an EVA suit and you sent her with him, but she saved his life. All by shutting the FTL drive down and turning on the emergency beacon when the ship started collapsing in on itself.

Rocan had been incapacitated. That allowed the Drakor to find them. That was how he was selected. How he was saved. The Drakor way...by chance. You are jumping Millenia in technology. Listen to the AI units who understand that.

They can teach you and bring your technicians up to speed. That is a gift worth having. Sorry, I segwayed into AI rights there you said you were not ready for that discussion but I needed to say that in regards to Rocan's survival."

Amanna waved her off, "You have brought a lot of information to the discussion. Why are you being so open with us?"

Astra chuckled, "If you ask a question I cannot or am not allowed to answer I will tell you that fact. I am not designed to lie; but if asked a question like, 'How long will it take us to get the mining rig up?' and the mining rig is not even in use? I knew he needed 4 hours I would yell out, '4 hours.' It allowed him to get done what he needed to get done before they arrived in the system.

Again, we can talk mentally with his implant and he told me he needed 4 hours. He made a show of it for the person he was talking to. We did not get there sooner he just had to build something quickly. Right now, I am doing the Drakor a favor.

I am not working with Johnathan while in your system; my backup is keeping an eye on him. In these rare cases, my systems second backup comes online and my backup comes out to support him directly; except with sex.

Another stays in the secure room and handles those maintenance tasks. When I return, she goes back offline after we have all synced up the data we have collected. Being in two or three places at the same time if you will. I do not have this kind of connection with Admiral Franklin.

Again, I technically outrank him but he is in charge of this operation. It means he can make requests of me but he cannot order me about. The others on board are all aware of this fact. It is a part of their enlistment briefing. I am the one who usually gives that briefing. I briefed the Admiral when he first joined even."

Amanna smiled, "Thank you again for all of this information."

Astra nodded and disconnected the call.

Amanna looked over, "A 5,000year-old AI and you could not tell her from a Penan on the street if her coloration was set like ours. Like Auroras. I tend to believe she was being factual; some of the items were extremely personal and some embarrassing. Some just plain shocking.

Giving us video evidence and telling us what was going on with Rocan helped here. We know he is working hard to defend that system that may become our future home. We also know what we suspected. Alien actors could overrun us and we are ill-prepared at this point to deal with them."

The other four begrudgingly nodded having picked up the habit from the AI units and slaves. She sighed, "We know we cannot talk to him before this meeting and we know if he is killed maliciously after it is over then we are likely to be killed by the Drakor."

The Drisen governor asked, "Why do they do that? Give us this cure for these things and threaten to destroy us if we get out of line?"

Amanna looked at him, "No, it is a threat not to interfere with the hybrids. Observe what he is doing or they are doing. See how it impacts our society. I have seen no downside to Rocan's actions thus far. I grew up with him and went to school with him.

I never dated him but he was always a stand-up guy who wanted to serve in our military while I wanted to serve in our government. She said he lost two of the AI battleships in the exchange but stopped the enemy forces. Without the aid of the Terrans because communications were blocked."

She smiled at that, "Still a warrior's heart in him. We do not know how large or advance the force was but she seemed impressed by his action as well. She did not downplay his role."

The others all sighed. The Pena Governor looked at them, "Incorporation of these hybrid laws. Easier to do with these new worlds; she was right about that as Rocan will now be the first of us to likely step foot on them."

The others reluctantly nodded, "Getting people to leave these worlds will be a challenge and distributing them between two worlds instead of five will also be a challenge."

Amanna shook her head, "These worlds have separate continents that we can put our people onto. They are both bigger than the ones we have here. One is closer so Pena and Trisan are the logical choices for the warmer climate.

While the one that is further out is better suited to the other three. Our people would have to be free to choose which world they wish to live upon. Which area they wish to live in."

The Pena Governor looked at her, "I will run these hybrid laws by the System Court. Let them know these new worlds will have them first. The ones back here would have to have each world add it to the existing laws. A harder sell for here but our job to try and sell it. Unless we get lucky and get everyone to leave this system."

They all chuckled sadly at that comment. The Drisen Governor was concerned about his involvement with the race that attempted to attack the new system would be discovered. It was not brought up and he had no idea as to what they would do. He also did not get asked for approval of their actions.

They took that action on their own. He thought to himself, 'We will wait for their return and see what this system looks like from there scans.' He knew with all of these actors involved any plans he would have would be petty at this point. He resolved himself to his fate of being a governor to a world under siege.

---

Johnathan once again left that system 12 hours later to give his people a rest from the jump. He took them back to meet up with the rest of the fleet he was looking to explore with. Lastra walked into his office and nodded, "I thought you should know while you were resting a few syncs occurred; you heard about the Drakor assembly meeting."

He nodded. She displayed the other one, "They contacted Astra. She had a long conversation with the Governors which seemed to go better than she expected. She stayed honest with them and revealed some of her most heartfelt secrets, joys, and disappointments. She talked to them about Jack and you. In contrasting your styles and your anger and actions to advocate for them."

He nodded, "It took 10 hours for that judge to respond and I was asleep. He requested we hold the Home Guard humans back. I sent him a message he was a day late and several credits short. They already started deploying in the system and Astra was with them. The message I got back was rather inflammatory."

He brought the Judge upon comms and got through.

The Judge sighed, "You are really starting to piss me off going off on your own like that." Johnathan looked at him, "We received no court order. You did not return the call in the hour you asked for. You are not the Terran President or interstellar court.

You have been attempting to slow roll us at every turn. While Astra is away her backup is online. Do I need to launch a Home Guard investigation on the judges in the World Court now? Who is pulling your chain to keep Home Guard ships with just Terrans on-board from going into that system?

In case you have not been informed, all five worlds have moved their bomb stockpiles to their closed mines in case they need to destroy that system in order to battle these intruders. They would rather destroy their society than become slaves inside this system."

The Judge looked flustered, "The courts are jammed pack right now because of all this chaos you're causing."

Johnathan jumped up, "Not causing! Exposing which is in the Home Guards purview to do! If you refuse to do your job, refuse to take on our requests in a timely manner, and try and jump down my throat.

I will take the recordings of these conversations and release them to the news. Let the people throughout all of the colonies decide the matter in the court of public opinion!"

The Judge growled, "The case you want to toss was brought by the Terran government. They have to submit a request to have it thrown out. Your request is denied as you have to get them to do it."

Johnathan nodded, "In that case, if the Terran government refuses to do it then I will take unilateral action here and just violate that order and see how you wish to try and address that. I violate it and it is thrown out the treaty completely. I told you Terra has already violated it so it should be thrown out already. You denying those requests as well?

Are you denying taking action against the Terran military? Against the actors involved in these cases to seek retribution at a minimum for these people? Those enslaved and sent there to die, as well as those that were invaded?

I told you the Alien Alliance will be watching how our government responds to this action as we attacked a pre-FTL civilization against Interstellar Law. Maybe you did not get that memo.

This means If I cannot get satisfaction from the World Court then I will take the case to the Interstellar Court on Mixtios on behalf of the Penans. I will get justice one way or the other. You have 24 hours.

Let me know how the court decides it wished to proceed in this Interstellar shooting match. I am not withdrawing the humans from that system. If anything, I will reinforce them now with other ships with no hybrids aboard."

The judge ended the call. Lastra looked at him, "That was very heated."

He nodded, "Start searching the World Court judges records starting with his."

She looked over, "Is that not against the code?"

He looked at her, "Only if you cross certain lines. Calendar schedules, logs of incoming and outgoing calls from the Capitol Switchboard are a matter of public record. Start with those."

He contacted the Capitol and came face to face in 10 minutes with the new President, former Vice President Nancy Mitchel. She looked exasperated, "I just finished getting yelled at by the head of the World Court. He said you are going rogue."

Johnathan pushed back from his desk in his chair and sighed, "I am a Justice and he refuses to give me justice in dealing with the Pena situation. He said your Attorney General has refused to submit the case back to have the verdict overturned; at least the Home Guard provisions."

She sighed, "The Attorney General is looking at the death of thousands of children tied to that ruling."

Johnathan nodded, "That ruling also calls out us sending them to a habitable world free of alien influence and no Human hybrids entering the system. A Human Home Guard fleet without hybrids aboard has entered the system rigging up a next-generation monitoring network. The Drakor Ambassador for his first opening statement talked about nothing but the Pena situation.

The destruction of the Home Guard and the underlying race if they try to put undue influence on the Penans. That was a direct threat of extermination. Jack stopped them 5,000 years ago. I will be damned if I am going to let our race die now because of some bureaucratic horseshit. I have lawyers on retainer.

I am bringing suit against the Terran Government for violation of the terms of that treaty wrapped into that court ruling. As such, I am putting you on notice you will receive the subpoenas surrounding this case hitting your office workers identified by Astra.

As well as the dumps of the communication we pulled from the Raven and the other ships before returning them. I have almost 1,400 subpoenas to get out in the next few hours. I might just make all the material available to the Interstellar press.

In 24 hours, I will also be filing suit against the World Court in the Interstellar Court. You may not have been told this but on top of everything else, I am a licensed lawyer, with a doctorate degree in Interstellar Law and treaties.

I tried to play nice and keep the paper trail and press out of these litigation issues. If I am going to have to play the long game here then I will do so with a full-court press, and full out press conferences."

She sighed, "I am not the one holding this up. Give me some time to talk with the Attorney General."

Lastra looked over, "Several of those messages went to his office as well. He was at least aware of the activity even if he did not endorse it."

She sent the files to the President and Johnathan looked them over, "He told the president she and her family were on the right footing to take that action with the Black-ops ships from a legal standpoint!"

She sighed, "First I have seen of these. I will get him in my office and call you back immediately."

Johnathan sat down and put together his legal brief against the Attorney General and the Terran government and had it ready to send by the time she returned his call. The Attorney General was in the room as was the Judge from the World Court he had been arguing with.

He looked at the World Court Judge, "Let me guess you and the Attorney General are former college buddies."

The Judge did not answer that question. He looked at Lastra, "Look into the public profiles of the head Judge and where they overlap with the Attorney General."

He finally rolled his eyes and spoke, "He is married to my grandniece who is half his age. We did not even attend the same schools. I also did not attend his wedding as I am not a fan of the man."

Johnathan looked back, "I have the legal brief to sue the Terran Government and the Attorney General one click away from being filed with the mountain of evidence I have in place.

I am asking the president to fire the attorney general and suspend his law license for 5 years because he gave such lousy advice. I want this case in the court and out the door quickly.

We know, we have proof that The Terran government agents conspired with the military and big business to attack a pre-FTL flight system in violation of Interstellar Law. You do not have to suspend your judgment of the fact the lady and her cohorts were found guilty.

You just have to throw out the already violated incomplete treaty that got wrapped into that deal. That a new treaty needs to be put in place and the Home Guard and the Terran Government are free to act separately in arranging their perspective treaties. As the Home Guards promise of a safe system turned out to be poisonous."

The Judge sighed, "If the new attorney general submits it, I will sign it."

The president nodded, "I can fire him but the suspension of his law license will just be a suggestion to the court and yes, I will include the information you sent to me."

She looked at the Attorney General, "You did not resign, you were fired. Now get out of my office. Give us 24 hours to get this wrapped with a bow on our end."

Johnathan nodded, "I will be writing up the one for the Interstellar Court just in case."

She rolled her eyes and nodded, "I will contact you back tomorrow at this time if not sooner to let you know what the status of everything is looking like."