Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 27

Over the next several days, there were no more incidents and the Athosians seemed to be getting along with the Poseidon personnel. Most of the captains, Arthur especially, would spend quite a bit of time talking to Mark and, as such, Mark found out pretty much everything he needed to know about the planet they were going to.

In summary, they were called 'The Alliance' and they were formed from the various nations on the planet working together after realizing their minor squabbles really were minor when they were all being attacked by superior technology from another planet.

They only had their planet and their primary enemy was called 'The Empire', which they've been at war with for nearly 150 years. They still don't know where the Empire came from, but they seem to show up every few months with a couple of ships, they usually send some missiles toward the planet and have a little fight with the Raptors and then retreat.

The plan for attacking Atlanterra was to get more technology to defend themselves from the Empire, since Sebastian said he couldn't get them more. They realized it was a gamble to send six of their ten ships, but they were starting to get desperate as the Empire had been getting more aggressive and the attacks more frequent.

They were all very appreciative of the food, sports and workout facilities and they also seemed to have a liking for the movie theatre. They were mainly appreciative of the fact they weren't confined to quarters or locked up.

As the ship was approaching their home planet of Athos, they were paged to the bridge. When Mark met them outside the bridge, Arthur looked at the men and asked, "On behalf of all the men, can we request to stay?"

Mark laughed as he answered, "Unfortunately, at this time, I have to say NO. We need to return you and your ships to your people first and talk things over with your leaders. Just to let you know, my goal is to meet with the leaders of your planet and hopefully get your planet to join the Federation, then you could join our security forces and hopefully we can improve life for everyone on your planet. Based on what you've told me, I think they might be receptive to the idea."

Just then an announcement came over the speakers saying they would be exiting light drive in 2 minutes.

Mark asked, "Can you captains come with me so we can talk to your leaders? The rest of you are dismissed, we will page you when your leaders agree to meet."

The captains accompanied Mark to the bridge. This was the first time any of them had seen the bridge, so they were just soaking it in.

They exited light drive uncloaked, but still quite a distance from the planet. Within seconds they were being hailed from the planet. Mark waved his hand toward the boardroom and said, "Gentlemen, shall we go talk to your leaders?"

They all sat around the boardroom table along with the Commander and the hail was redirected there.

'Unknown ship, please identify yourselves immediately or we will be forced to take action.'

Adam answered, "Greetings, I am Commander Topos of the Atlantean Federation, we mean you no harm... we are here on a diplomatic mission."

Arthur recognized the voice, "Harper is that you? It's Arthur Hermosa."

"Arty? What are you doing on that huge ship?"

"It's a long story, let's just say that everything Sebastian has told us is a lie! We are lucky the Atlanteans are actually nice people. We need to speak with Commandant Marshall or any of the Alliance leaders."

After a pause he added, "Oh and call off the Raptors, since they can't do anything to this ship anyway."

Cricket informed Mark, "The three ships that had been heading their way have turned back, but there are five other ships coming in from the far side of the planet."

Mark said, "Move us to the far side of the planet Commander, the three ships that were coming to intercept have turned back, but there are five more ships, still quite a way off on the far side of the planet."

The captains were just staring at Mark, "How do you know that?"

Mark just smiled, "I am very in touch with the universe around me."

Arthur said, "Harper, are you still there?"

Harper replied, "I heard, our scanners don't detect anything that direction, sending the Raptors to investigate."

As soon as that was said, Harper acknowledged, "Wait! Yes, I do see five ships that just hit the edge of our scanner range. It looks like the Empire was trying to sneak up on us."

Mark cut in, "Five against three isn't fair! Our ships will join you in investigating."

"Oh shit! Two ships just appeared out of nowhere right in our orbit," Harper sounded worried.

Arthur calmed the man, "Harper, those ships are Atlantean and they've been there monitoring us for quite some time. This is how I know everything Sebastian said is a lie. Just one of those ships could easily take out our entire fleet and they have done nothing."

They could hear the chatter from the Raptors, 'Those ships are big, but they don't look armoured.'

A minute later, 'We have visual on the incoming ships. We're being hailed!'

'Hello Athosian scum, I see you got yourselves a couple of new toys, too bad you won't get to keep them.'

Without warning all five massive star ships, each roughly the size of a Battlestar, fired on both of the Atlantean Destroyers. The shields glowed with the numerous impacts, but no damage was done as the Athosian ships were firing on the Empire vessels.

The next salvo was aimed at the Athosian ships. Two of them moved into position behind the Atlantean Destroyers and were protected by the shields, but the one ship was exposed and you could hear them saying they were hit and asking for damage reports.

Mark said, "Patch me in to speak with the Empire ships."

Cricket confirmed it was done.

"Attention attacking ships, my name is Mark Phoenix, I am the King of the Atlantean Federation, the new toys you mentioned are Atlantean ships! We are in this region of space on a diplomatic mission of peace. If you fire on us again it will be considered an act of war against the Federation and we will retaliate."

"Atlantean Federation... we've never heard of you. I was wondering where the scum would have gotten new toys, they are tougher than those pieces of junk the Athosians use."

"Now please turn around and leave this area. If you would like to meet to discuss diplomacy, we would entertain a meeting with your leaders."

The gruff looking leader turned and said, "Concentrate all fire on those new ships!"

Another salvo was targeted towards the Destroyers. Their shields flaring with the unending barrage, the attackers started coordinating their shots so one ship could recharge or reload, while another continued the barrage.

Captain Connor from one of the Destroyers asked, 'Our shields are down to 20%, can we return fire?'

Mark shook his head, 'Take out the lead ship.'

One shot was fired from the Destroyer as the attackers kept up their barrage.

'Ha! That's it? One shot! It did nothing, you're not as all powerful as you thought you...'

Suddenly the ship disintegrated into nothingness, as the other ships stopped firing immediately and turned to retreat at full speed.

Captain Connor asked, "Do we pursue sir?"

"No Captain, we do not! Let them think about what just happened."

Harper announced, "Atlantean ships, you are welcome to orbit. The Alliance has agreed to meet with you. Raptor 4, come in for repairs immediately."

The call ended and Arthur said, "The Alliance has agreed to meet. That's a good sign! You'll get to meet with all six leaders."

When the ships had returned to orbit, there was a call from the Alliance leaders asking about terms for meeting. They all appeared to be in different rooms on a conference call.

Mark said, "The terms are an exchange of their men and their ships, for Sebastian, and they were welcome to meet on the ship so they could see their men."

The leaders were a bit leery, until one of the leaders said, "We do not know where Sebastian is, the day after the mission to Atlanterra left, he did some work on his cargo ship and left. Which verifies your claim that he is a fugitive."

Mark said, "Well, I guess the updated terms are, come on up and see your men and ships and let's sit down and talk. If you ever see Sebastian, let us know immediately."

One of the leaders was skeptical, "Do we really want to go up to their ship?"

After a moment of contemplation, another leader said, "Why not go up to their ship? After what they did to the Empire, it's obvious that they are in an entirely different league than us, and like Hermosa said, if they had ill intentions, we would be helpless to stop them. They've had two ships sitting here watching our planet for who knows how long?"

They thought about it for a few seconds, until they all came to that same conclusion and said they were going to leave within the hour.

An hour later, an Atlantean shuttle, with the Alliance logo on the tail fin, docked in the designated landing bay, with the six leaders of the Alliance. As they exited, they were totally in awe of the size of the ship, as Arthur introduced each leader to Mark and Commander Topos.

They were introduced to Commandant Marshall, King Tyrion, President Rayburn, President Plitt, General Loren and King Grotton.

Mark said, "I see you're making good use of one of our shuttles."

The leaders looked a bit worried, having just realized they were potentially using a stolen shuttle.

One of the leaders said, "Sebastian gave us three shuttles and a cargo ship. I take it these were not his to give?"

Mark said, "Being the former Prince, he might have actually owned them. The catch is, it's illegal to give our technology to non-federated planets, so I think we should go sit down and talk for a bit."

Adam led the leaders, the captains and Mark upstairs to the boardroom off the bridge. Along the route, Atlantean personnel were greeting the captains.

When they sat down around the boardroom, King Grotton said, "Captain Hermosa, why were their personnel greeting you along the way?"

Arthur smiled, "When we surrendered, we expected to be locked up, but after meeting us they determined we were no threat and they let us roam free."

"Why did you surrender?" Commandant Marshall questioned.

"Everything Sebastian has told us is a lie! We were told they had six ships that were several hundreds of years old. The Atlanteans knew we were coming from the time we left, they even knew how many jumps we took to reach them! With a month to prepare, they were waiting for us with over 10,000 ships! What were we supposed to do?"

"Excuse me? 10,000?" Commandant Marshall asked incredulously.

"Yes sir! I'm just glad they confronted us before we tried to attack, otherwise they would've been well within their rights to blow us away and, as you've no doubt heard, they handled the Empire quite easily!"

"Yes, I suppose we owe you a reward or something for sparing our men and then defending us?" President Rayburn asked.

"Nope I'm just glad we could help. But we would like the criminal, Sebastian, handed over to us."

"Is that all you want?" President Rayburn asked.

"Actually, I would like to talk about the possibility of Athos joining the Federation."

"So you want to get rid of all of us and take over our planet?" King Tyrion stated.

"No, we would like your planet to join the Federation in hopes of improving the lives of the people of this planet and help you out in areas you need help with. You can still govern the people, it'll just be as a senator elected by the people."

"So what does joining your Federation do for us and how many planets and citizens are in it?" President Plitt asked as all the leaders appeared to be equals to each other.

"Currently, there are 11 planets in the Federation and several billion citizens. Joining the Federation gets you access to our education, medical, security, transportation, communication, construction, legal systems and more."

"So you would give us weapons and ships to defend against the Empire?" Commandant Marshall asked.

"No, but being part of the Federation means you're also protected by the Federation. We would establish a security force here to protect and serve the planet. Your own citizens would be welcome to go through the academy and join our security forces."

"Sebastian told us all about your security, or lack thereof, how could you protect 11 planets with only 6 ships?" General Loren asked skeptically.

"I will admit, after thousands of years without any conflicts, my people had gotten fairly complacent with their planetary security. All planets did have stationary orbital defences, but any attacks by more than a single ship could have easily overtaken them. I, however, came from a planet strife with military conflict. Since I've taken over, every planet now has a new security station, plus at least one Destroyer, like the two you saw earlier, around it at all times."

Commandant Marshall looked over the captains that were sitting around the table, listening intently and hoping Athos would join the Federation, "So Captain Hermosa, you and your men were treated well?"

"Absolutely! Being among the Atlanteans was very eye-opening, the rooms we stayed in were more spacious and comfortable than our bunks on our ships. We weren't locked in, we could come and go as we please. The food on the ship is incredible and the sports..."

"A simple yes, would suffice!" King Tyrion interjected.

"We'll need time to discuss joining your Federation, is it OK if we don't give you an answer for a few days?" President Plitt asked.

"Actually, the decision to join the Federation isn't yours to make!" Mark said to the surprised leaders.

Mark explained the process, "The first step is that we establish an embassy on Athos. The embassy is where people could come to see what Federation life is like and we would have staff there whose jobs are to learn about all aspects of Athosian life and document the differences to Federation life. Then we setup transportation routes so that citizens can visit and possibly emigrate to other federated planets."

"You are allowing our people to leave Athos?" General Loren asked with a scowl.

"Of course! Visiting a Federated planet allows them to be fully immersed in our lifestyle. As for emigration, if things are that bad that they're willing to leave family and friends, they shouldn't be denied the chance at a better life. They can't however, emigrate until after they become citizens, so you're not going to see a mass exodus of people from your planet, if that's what you are worried about.

Which brings us to eventually having a planet-wide vote to determine, whether or not to join the Federation, as well as to choose the senators who will represent the people. The process often takes a couple of years. During the whole process, we will have at least one Destroyer in orbit as part of our security."

"Where will you put your embassy?" King Grotton enquired.

"We don't build embassies on existing land, so that we don't appear to be partial to any one region. So usually they either float on the ocean or orbit in space depending on the type of transportation the general citizens have access to."

President Rayburn asked, "Captains, you've been the only ones to spend any time in their society, even though it was on a warship. Given what you already know, would you vote IN or OUT of the Federation?"

Simultaneously and without hesitation, all of the captains said, "IN!"

President Plitt laughed, "That tells me everything I need to know! Our own military, who are our most loyal and dedicated citizens, didn't even hesitate when asked that question. They trust them, and I don't think they're out to exploit us like the Empire is."

Commandant Marshall said, "Set up your embassy, we will make sure citizens can get there and we will get you news coverage. As you may have guessed, we are to the point of desperation, the Empire attacks are draining our funds for construction and repair of our ships, but also having to put way too much money into military research and development, plus we are losing way too many good men fighting them. When you consider the lack of funding, many services and institutions are in a sad state of disrepair."

Mark asked, "Could you take me for a tour of your planet? Captains, you may as well take your ships, go visit your families and return to your duties, it sounds like your people really need you!"

The leaders agreed as Adam and Mark left with them in their shuttle. While they were on their way to the surface, Mark asked, "What's your history with the Empire?"

The leaders all looked to Commandant Marshall who explained, "When they first discovered us, we had just developed faster than light travel. We ran across them while we were out exploring, discovering an advanced race, we were elated. They followed us back to Athos and immediately began killing or enslaving the people and raping women.

We lost nearly 20 million people until we could fight them off on the ground. Then after a few months, they returned and started attacking from orbit and we lost close to 250 million people when most of the bigger cities were bombarded."

King Tyrion continued, "It was then that we realized we needed to work together to protect our planet, rather than using our militaries against each other to protect our territories, and thus the Alliance was formed. For the past 150 years we've been at war, with the Empire attacking us every few months, usually with just one or two ships, but the past 3 attacks have been with three to five ships... we still don't actually know where they come from!"

For the next several hours, they took Mark, Adam, Rayven and Gyges on a tour of all six nations. It really was quite a beautiful looking planet with a lot of agriculture, but every city looked to still be mostly in ruins from the orbital bombardments. They landed in each of the capital cities and they could see the despair on the face of almost every citizen. Mark actually felt sorry for the people. By the time they finished the tour of the small planet, Mark and Adam had begun discussing how to speed up the process.

Mark asked the leaders, "Do you guys have some sort of publicly available information network, where people can use a device of some sort to research information?"

"Yes, we have an Infonet, it's where businesses and people can setup sites to deliver information that anyone can look up," President Rayburn said.

"OK good, that sounds like our Internet, we'll get Maren on it, she's one of our communications people and she figured out how to allow Earth's Internet to talk to the Atlantean network. I'm thinking maybe to speed up the process, we could link them into the Atlantean library, which outlines the Federation laws and all aspects of Federation life. Then everyone could look at it and form their own opinions and we could have the election in a couple of weeks."

The leaders were happy that there may be a faster way of joining the Federation.

After the leaders had returned to the surface, Mark, Adam, Rayven, Liyana, Kaleb and several other leaders held a conference call to discuss how to speed up the process of getting Athos into the Federation.

After much debate, Rayven came up with a solution, "Make Athos a probationary member! Implement the Federation protocols and give them a taste of medical, transportation, security and all that stuff. I would set the probation end date as the day of the vote. I'd suggest maybe a year due to the amount of damage that's been done there, but if they know there's a way out, they won't feel so pressured, plus it would show that we aren't looking to subjugate them. In the event they choose not to stay in the Federation, we take away what we gave them, just leave any buildings that we repair out of normal material."