Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 27

Mark got thinking, "I like it, but maybe we keep it simpler than that during the probation period! We supply a Sentinel, drones and personnel for law enforcement on the surface and some emergency shuttles. Then we setup at least one building, in every town, offering free food, water and clothing, while also offering medical, identification, information, library access and a voting centre. It can also function as a transportation hub, where we can offer public transportation between Federation buildings. Maybe it can also have residences, so our staff have a safe place to stay in the community instead of in orbit.

Should they have an urgent need for an essential service, such as a new power station, homeless shelter or something, we can discuss those individually and then we can either help them rebuild what they have or lease them one of our systems.

Then, after the vote is held, we will have an established presence to start implementing other services out of or, if they don't want to join, we deconstruct our own buildings and leave them to their own devices."

Everyone liked those ideas and soon it was unanimously agreed upon, in format anyway.

Liyana then setup an interview with Samira asking for volunteers to help rebuild this once beautiful planet.

Mark, Rayven, Liyana and Cricket then began designing various styles of, what they were calling, 'outreach centres', based on varying population densities.

Mark contacted the leaders about Athos becoming a probationary Federation member, and they agreed and arranged for a press conference that would air on the evening news.

Mark got dressed in his formal attire, which really was just the standard blue tactical uniform, but with a blue robe, his crown and his trident. Maren, Rayven, Gyges and Mark made their way down to the surface to the official Alliance headquarters.

When they arrived, they were swarmed by news reporters. Apparently word had already spread that an advanced race of good guys were going to help them rebuild their planet and help them deal with the Empire.

Alliance security dealt with keeping the reporters at bay, while Mark, Rayven, Gyges and Maren made their way into the headquarters, where all six leaders were waiting for them.

Before the press conference, they had a meeting and went over how the probationary system would work and they asked about some of the laws.

King Grotton asked, "You really hold no animosity towards us for trying to attack you?"

Mark simply stated, "None at all, I see now that you were desperate and you were acting on some very poor information. On my planet that is called a 'Hail Mary'... a last resort effort to try and make something miraculous happen, despite a very low chance of success."

King Grotton pondered the definition and caused everyone to laugh as he said, "So it worked... obviously not as we intended, but it worked!"

During the meeting, Maren had worked diligently with the Alliance technicians to link the Infonet with the Atlantean network and the library. She provided them all with the address to access the Atlantean library, so it could be mentioned in the broadcast.

The leaders decided they should have a look through at least the primary laws before the press conference, so they pulled up the site on their displays and broadcast it on a big screen, so they could all read and discuss. They didn't like that travel across borders would now be open, but they understood having a unified planet was more important than land based borders. The only thing they saw that might have some resistance is the equal rights of all beings regardless of sex, race, species, sexual orientation, etc. Some of the nations on Athos had started moving towards equal rights for women, but it was still relatively new and not followed globally at this time. If that was going to be the biggest hurdle for the planet, it really wasn't all that bad. Surprisingly it didn't look like the lack of religious recognition or support was going to be an issue on Athos. Having agricultural roots most people worshipped the sun and there wasn't many organized religions.

Once the leaders had decided they were OK with the changes, they got up to attend the news conference. In anxious fashion, they said that Senator Marshall would lead the news conference.

Mark smiled with the reference to Commandant Marshall as Senator Marshall. They were obviously jumping into this with both feet.

Gyges went back to the shuttle and got six Atlantean flags, before they started the news conference.

Senator Marshall started the news conference, "People of Athos, our soldiers have returned from their mission to Atlanterra, where it appears that everything Sebastian had told us was a lie! The mission to Atlanterra has brought back friends who, without us even asking, helped turned back an attack from the Empire."

The people present clapped and cheered until he held up his hand for silence.

"After touring our planet, King Phoenix has invited Athos to join their Federation, on a probationary basis. Our soldiers have spent some time with them and we believe what they say... joining the Federation provides numerous benefits and the assistance we need to rebuild our planet, but most of all it means that we are no longer alone and will be able to live in peace once again. Here with me is Mark Phoenix, the King of the Atlantean Federation."

The Senator gestured toward Mark, who then stepped up to the podium, shook hands with the Senator and then turned to face the people.

"People of Athos, we have been monitoring your planet for a while now, searching for the wanted criminal, Sebastian, and waiting to make contact. As it turned out, you contacted us on Atlanterra. We have toured your planet and have seen the devastation resulting from hundreds of years of war. I have also seen the worry and fear in your eyes from the repetitive attacks by the Empire... such a shame to see on a planet as beautiful as this.

The process of joining the Atlantean Federation typically takes years, as we learn about all your systems and then design transition plans. After seeing your beautiful planet and the people living on it, we are inviting Athos to join the Federation on a probationary basis to speed up the process, at the request of your leaders. Athos will be our first ever probationary member planet, so please bear with us during this transition period."

Mark nodded to Gyges as he turned to continue, "As a probationary member, we gift you our flag to symbolize that this planet is now part of the Atlantean Federation."

Mark took the flag from Gyges and presented it to Senator Marshall, who then walked to the back of the stage, took down the Alliance flag and replaced it with the Atlantean flag. While the senator was doing that, Mark gifted the other senators their own flags.

Once that ceremony was completed, Mark continued, "There is a site on your Infonet that links to the Atlantean Federation library. This library gives you all sorts of information about life in the Federation and how things work on every planet in the Federation, as well as information regarding our democratic process, monetary systems, language, religion, education, construction, medical, energy, recycling, communications, transportation, commerce, security, etc.

It also outlines our laws and how they are enforced by our legal system. Your leaders have reviewed our primary laws and they have determined that they are similar to what you currently have, so the transition should be fairly easy, but please look through the information as soon as possible as there will only be a one month transition period until Federation law becomes fully enforced.

What this means, is that over the next month, we will be setting up Federation outreach centres in communities around the planet. These outreach centres will have personnel to answer questions as well as allow you to access our library. The centres will also offer free meals and clothing as well as services such as free medical. They will also be the hubs for a new public transportation system.

Then 1 year and 1 month from today, we will hold a planet-wide vote. That vote will indicate whether Athos becomes a permanent member of the Federation or if you wish to go it alone, it will also allow you to elect new senators or leaders if you wish. Until then your current leaders will become your interim senators.

Should you choose not to join the Federation, we will simply remove the outreach centres, transportation network and any other technology we have given you and leave you be.

Thank you for your time and welcome to the Atlantean Federation!"

Over the next few weeks, the new outreach centres were setup in every town with a minimum population of 150 and some of the larger population centres had multiple centres. One transport of personnel had arrived and the new public transportation system went into service.

Athos had historically used planes and trains to travel great distances and automobiles for local travel. However the airports and train bridges were common targets for the orbital bombardments, which still occasionally happened if the Empire wasn't detected in time or the Alliance was outnumbered. It was a tactic meant to keep the people in fear of attack and wear down their will, and it had been working! Some plane and train services had been restored, but very few since most of their resources went into their space defence program.

With the amount of ruin in some areas, it was very unsafe for anyone to be there, so much of what the construction personnel did, was simply return the area to a pristine natural state, for future development. They did help repair most of the railroad bridges and they rebuilt the entire road network as they hadn't been maintained in ages.

Over the past month, Mark had spent a lot of time down on the surface talking with citizens. Almost everyone seemed happy at the prospect of becoming part of the Federation. There was a couple of rights groups that objected, but they were not new and had been objecting the transition to equal rights before the Federation even got there.

Women everywhere were elated that they would finally be seen as equals and many started attending night schools to catch their education up.

The citizens seemed calm, happy and at peace with the transition and things appeared to be going favourably.

Cricket had expanded her sensor network in many directions from Athos, but had not yet located the Empire's home world or Sebastian. She did however have some tracking devices waiting for them, whenever they did show up, so they could track them back to their home planet. Hopefully it was within the range of their currently explored universe.

Annabelle was now officially done with school and they were just getting ready to move the ranch. Liyana had said the summer solstice celebration was quite the event on Atlantis and they definitely couldn't miss the winter one.

About a month after the last attack, numerous ships were detected by the enhanced scanning range of the Atlantean sensors. It appeared to be a major offensive by the Empire, with over 50 Battlestar sized ships coming in from all directions.

Cricket silently deployed the 5,000 cloaked drones from the Sentinel and distributed them around the planet as a protective barrier with 10 going out to surround each incoming ship.

From the new security room in the headquarters, they hailed the attackers.

A gruff looking man appeared on the screen. "Who are you and how have you detected us? Where is the Athosian scum?"

"Greetings! My name is Mark Phoenix and I am the King of the Atlantean Federation. Athos has recently joined the Federation and is therefore now under our protection.

Hopefully you know what happened the last time you tried to attack a Federation ship, take warning that we were very lenient firing only a single shot, if you attack again we will not be so lenient.

Also just for your information, we have you woefully outnumbered and surrounded already! Turn back now!"

"Outnumbered, ha! You are bluffing, we detect nothing around us!"

"Cricket, decloak 2 drones around each ship!"

The man in the display, "Wha... How? What trickery is this? I see the ships on our scanners, but I don't actually see them."

"That just shows how unprepared you are for this attack! Turn around now before you make a big mistake."

"You've done something to trick our sensors, I think you are bluffing!"

"Tell me sir, which ship is yours? Can you shoot something so we can identify you?"

"Why?"

"Because we will leave your ship intact to return to your home world. Since you seem to be the leader of this attack, you should be the one to explain the loss of 49 ships and personnel to your superiors."

One of the ships turned around and started to retreat.

"Sorry 48 ships, it appears as though one of your group values their lives more than your foolhardy mission. Whoa, 47 ships now... 46... 45... well it looks like there is a few intelligent people among you. Seriously... turn around now!"

"He's bluffing men, stay on mission!"

Cricket said, "I've figured out which ship is his from the transmissions, I'll cloak the drones around him and uncloak the other 8 around the other ships. I've also deployed two trackers."

"Ahhh there you are! You will survive, unfortunately the other ships with you won't unless they turn around within the next minute."

Mark had them begin a countdown, which was being displayed on the call. Another ship started to retreat, so Cricket redirected one of the trackers to it, since it was definitely going to survive.

As the countdown reached 10, only half of their ships remained, but they had increased their speed to close the distance to the planet.

Just before the countdown reached zero, every one of the remaining 25 ships fired a number of missiles toward the planet. The drones immediately took out every ship, except the leader's, so he could watch all the missiles they had fired get destroyed by the drones forming the barrier around the planet. All around the planet, people could see the explosions beyond their atmosphere, it was almost like a global fireworks display.

The expression on the leader's face was both surprise and shock. All their ships were gone, save his, and zero damage had been done. The call was still open as Mark said, "You were warned! Now turn around, report back to your superiors and accept whatever punishment they give you for wasting so many resources."

The man looked absolutely devastated, obviously not used to losing a battle in such a decisive fashion. Without a word he nodded to someone outside of the display, the call ended and the ship started to retreat.

The senators were all present in the security room during the attack and got to witness the event.

Still in awe of the spectacle they just witnessed, Senator Marshall sat down heavily in his chair, unable to say a word.

Eventually he collected himself enough to say, "We may as well forego the vote and join the Federation now, what we just witnessed would have been the end of our civilization if it were not for the Federation. All these years we thought we were fairly evenly matched with the Empire, this just tells me they've been toying with us and wearing us down, they could've taken us whenever they wanted to."

Suddenly the realization of what he just said hit the other senators, they all sat down heavily and a couple even started to cry.

News of the attack spread like wildfire and there were celebrations all over the planet. People celebrating the fact that they were now safe and thankful that they were now part of the Federation. Even the groups that were complaining about equal rights were abandoning their protests, now that the benefits of being part of the Federation had been witnessed by all.

A worldwide petition was started asking to forego the vote and join the Federation permanently.

Within one day, the petition to forego the vote and just join the Federation had collected nearly 300 million signatures out of the 650 million adults over the age of 18.

Mark acknowledged that it did look very convincing, but it wasn't being done using an official Federation voting system, which is the only type of vote Mark would accept.

The leaders agreed and set the vote to take place in ten days at a Federation outreach centre close to you. By holding the voting in a Federation building, it allowed them to program people's identities into their medibots, since everyone had to provide identification in order to vote.

The voting stations were simple, you placed your hand on the screen and the voting options available to you popped up. So no matter where you were in the Federation universe you could always vote in your local riding. It also meant that you couldn't cheat the system and vote at multiple different voting stations or vote if you weren't actually eligible to vote.

Ten days later they held the vote and the result was 92% for joining the Federation, so Mark agreed to remove their probationary status and got the education and communication people involved. Mark did ask that the original voting date still be valid, for voting on their senators.

There were several conference calls with news organizations and changes made to the library recognizing that the Federation had now grown to 12 planets.

There was still no sign of Sebastian and the trackers on the Empire ships didn't pan out, so that meant the Empire was further away than they had thought, but at least they now had trackers at those planets, so that increased the chances of locating the Empire with a seeding ship.

With things well underway on Athos, and with two weeks to the wedding, Mark decided it was time to head back to Earth, but were going to swing by whatever planets were on the way. The new senators even said they would come for the wedding.