Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 29

It was at that point, as we were all sitting around the control room watching everything, that we realized the Empire had just been toying with us for all those years, they could've taken our planet anytime they wanted and we would've been helpless to stop them.

After that attack, the people begged the Federation to allow them to join immediately rather than go through the usual transition period... and here we are!"

Samira, Elisha and a few people around them were all silent as they heard the whole story, in more detail than anyone had heard. Samira finally collected herself and said, "Thank you Senator! That's an incredible story, welcome to the Federation."

When the interview was done he looked over and saw Mark still raking up garbage and working alongside the other cleaners. "I honestly never thought I'd see a man that wields the power, influence and abilities of a god, doing mundane tasks such as picking up garbage alongside commoners... without it being some sort of staged propaganda to bolster public opinion. Just knowing that he is looking after my people and my planet makes me proud to be part of the Federation."

Dominic Mayans was nearby and heard the interview as well. Samira, of course, recognized him and asked him to sit down for an impromptu interview.

She asked him how he was liking living on Atlantis and then of his opinions of the king.

"Atlantis is incredible, it's definitely the jewel of the Federation. As for our King, he's definitely doing all the right things to get the Federation back on track after centuries of stagnation... and he's doing it at an unprecedented rate too!

We had a meeting recently with the Bank for International Settlements, so our currency could be exchanged on this planet, and it wasn't until after we got back to the shuttle that he informed me that someone had taken a shot at us while we were walking back to the shuttle. I just about collapsed on hearing that, my heart was beating out of my chest. The king was as calm as could be... he hadn't even flinched!

When I asked why he took that moment to tell me, he just told me that making a public scene would've caused panic, and that I wasn't in any danger with him around, but he wanted to make sure I understood how hostile this planet was. So until he implements world peace, I think I'll stay where there's Federation security."

Elisha then asked, "Since you have been on Earth for a few months now... do you think Earth will ever join the Federation?"

Dominic thought long and hard, "It's tough to say. The first thing that needs to happen is all your governments need to stop all the military peacocking they're doing and use the taxes they collect for something productive and beneficial for their own people, and actually enforce the laws they have written so they wouldn't need to change things to cater to niche groups. I mean seriously, you're either male or female, it depends on your biological reproductive system, and all the laws they've written to satisfy niches based on race, sexual preference, and even those made up religions... they need to enforce the laws they've got and the people need to get tougher skin!

Unless a catastrophic event happens, similar to the Empire first attacking Athos, that slaps all of the governments in the face and shows them how petty and powerless their little militaries are against a true planetary threat... you know, something that forces them all to work together, I seriously can't see it ever happening... it's even more difficult now that Atlantis is here as any major planetary threat would be taken care of by the Federation. So Earth is actually getting security by proxy."

Dominic then chuckled, "The King wouldn't... but he could be the one to slap all the governments in the face... without being a planetary threat. You saw what he did with all the Chinese submarines after they attacked us... or what he did to the ships and missiles at Athos, he could easily just make every military weapon in the world disappear. That would give you the world peace that everyone says they want, but nobody seems to be doing anything about it.

Maybe then your governments would quit wasting taxpayer dollars on peacocking and actually use the money for something good and beneficial for the population. I bet they could cut your taxation by half, or even more, and still have surpluses. Imagine a world with no war and no debt! That's pretty much life in the Federation for you. You shouldn't have to work most of your life away. Yes, everyone needs to do their share for the benefit of society, but life is for living, not working!"

Elisha said, "Wow! Thank you for that honest insight, General Mayans."

The next person they saw was Kaleb and they asked him if he'd sit down and talk.

Samira started, "General Marsbe, you and the King are pretty good friends, after all, you were in his wedding party, what are your thoughts about what he's done so far?"

Kaleb laughed, "I have nothing, but the utmost respect for him. He didn't ask to have the weight of ruling billions of citizens and dealing with intergalactic problems, yet he's just rolled with the punches and taken everything in stride. The guy is an anomaly. Just the way he works is intriguing. You might see him over there raking up garbage, but he's probably watching over some distant planet just making sure everything is OK for the people living there."

Elisha said, "How does he do it? Here he was just a guy looking to retire out in the country and live an easy going life, then he gets thrust into the role of being a King. You would think the amount of responsibility on him would be overwhelming."

"Well, he is the first king since Atlas from Atlas' bloodline and he is definitely the needle in the haystack as far as his capabilities. He's accomplished more in the few months he's been in power than all the kings in the past millenia. His mind is, in and of itself a wonder, he literally oversees our universe. He's almost like Atlas, reincarnated with the weight of the universe on his shoulders.

I think back to when we first realized Athos sent six ships to attack us, it was like 5:00 here and he calls me and tells me what is going to happen. This was days before we even confirmed their course and almost a month before they arrived. Guess what? It happened exactly as he said it would. The funny thing is, I didn't even receive the notice about the ships until after he called me.

Even when you talk to him, most of the time, he knows what you're going to say before you even say it. I've seen him when he gets to planning things, it's like he sees things before they happen. He then comes up with a plan and what happens is usually whatever he came up with.

Look at him right now, he's standing still with his eyes closed... that's him dealing with some crisis somewhere, it could be right here in the city or it could be in a galaxy far away."

Once that park was cleaned up, Mark shook hands with the other people cleaning up and walked back towards the palace. Elisha called Mark over when he got closer.

They were all looking at him like something was up, so he said, "What?"

Elisha said, "We just saw you stop and concentrate for a few seconds. I've seen you do it before and I didn't think anything of it, but people have said that's when you are doing something somewhere. Can we ask what it was?"

"If you must know, a ship of unknown origin just popped into our solar system out near Canis Major and is just sitting there. There's two people on board and it doesn't appear to have any weapons. I'm pretty sure it is not from the Empire, just by the design, but I'm just waiting to see what they do. If they don't do something after a while, I'll try to talk to them."

Senator Marshall was still nearby and just smiled, "See? He's standing here picking up garbage and he can sense a problem on the other side of the universe!"

Kaleb was shocked, "When you said you were in touch with the universe I always thought you got reports or something from the scanners on the ships. You mean you can actually detect and communicate with a foreign ship in the middle of a far away galaxy without equipment?"

Cricket said, "I think they have a problem!"

Mark said he thought something was wrong and was going to contact the ship so he held up his hand.

"Cricket, open up communications with that ship?"

"Done!"

"Hello there, can you hear me?"

The two people in the ship looked at their radio, "Yes we hear you. Who is this?"

"My name is Mark Phoenix. Can I ask your names?"

"Our names are Cordero and Shanda."

"Are you two OK? Your ship appears to be without power."

"Our ship hit something in space and we ended up here, but we don't know where here is!"

"I could tell you where you are from my perspective, but it wouldn't mean anything to you. Do you think you can get your ship fixed?"

"We're not sure! We are trying to restore systems, our life support is functioning on battery power, but that will only last a day or two at most. Are you close?"

"It depends on your definition of close, I could reach you in about a day if I leave now. Do you want assistance?"

"Please, we would appreciate some assistance, as we're not sure if we can get our ship working again, but even if we do get it working, we wouldn't know which direction to go to get back to Magellan and we don't have food or water supplies to last more than a few days. We are lost!"

"I'm just going to see if there's a closer ship, but I doubt it."

"You have more than one ship?"

"The Federation has many ships. Do you not have more than one ship?"

"We only have one, this was our maiden voyage."

"Cricket, are there any ships closer than the Poseidon to their location?"

"No, the Poseidon is the closest!"

"Notify Adam, tell them I'm on my way up there and send them the coordinates."

Mark then returned to speaking with the visitors, "I'm just about to return to my ship and head your way. I will contact you again when I get close. In the meantime, conserve power for life support."

Mark then opened his eyes and everyone was staring at him, in fact quite the crowd had formed.

Kaleb finally spoke, "So?"

"Their names are Cordero and Shanda, from a planet called Magellan, and this was the maiden voyage for their ship. Apparently something happened and they instantly ended up there. Their ship is currently powerless and they are lost in space, but life support is working on battery power.

They're about a day away from Earth, so I'm going up to the Poseidon and we're going to go get them. They only have a day or so of battery power for their life support."

Elisha's eyes were wide, "You did all that just standing there?"

Mark nodded.

Elisha said, "You are a god! Seriously! A ship ends up in the middle of some galaxy, their ship is broken and they are lost, they're probably scared and likely expecting to die. Then suddenly someone communicates with them from thousands of light years away, without using equipment, and sends help. That meets my definition of a god."

Mark then laughed, "There's no such thing as gods. I'm just a man trying to make the part of the universe that I know about, peaceful and safe for all. If you must know, I have an active link with the sensor and communication beacons we've been seeding all over the universe. That's how I know what's going on."

Mark then excused himself to go grab some breakfast before departing for the Poseidon.

Samira and Elisha wasted no time editing their interviews and putting them online.

Mark met up with the girls for breakfast and they asked how his morning was going, he told them, "Well, I helped clean up some of the mess and am in the middle of helping some people that are lost in space not too far from Earth, so I'm going to take the Poseidon and go help them."

Annabelle jokingly said, "So, you've been slacking this morning!"

Mark faked a sigh, "Yes my Queen, I shall strive to do better by you," as everyone started laughing.

Annabelle kissed him as he apologized for taking off the day after their wedding, but she just took it in stride, "You're in charge of a big universe, I'm glad you could make it back for the wedding! It would've been weird to do the wedding via holoconference, but it was on my list of backup methods!"

Mark laughed, "Now that you're officially my Queen, you can come with me on all these adventures y'know."

Annabelle said, "Maybe next time, my friends are still in town and I want to show them around a bit. Do you think you'll be gone long?"

Mark said, "Nope, I figure 1 day out there, pick them up and 1 day back!"

Annabelle said, "Well then go save those people and get back soon."

Mark then noticed Gyges talking with his son, so he asked Athena, "Would you like to come on this trip and give Gyges and Gaderius some bonding time?"

Athena's eyes lit up, "Sure! I've only ever done training, I've never been on an actual mission!"

Gyges then said, "I'll show him the ropes."

As Mark finished his breakfast, and called Maren and had her come pick them up at the base of the palace.

Since it was going to be a quick trip, it looked like it was just Mark and Athena that were going.

As they got ready for Maren to arrive, Mark had Cricket patch him into the disabled ship, "Cordero, Shanda are you guys still OK?"

"We are here, we have questions though."

"I'm not sure I have the answers, and I have a few questions myself, but the time for questions and answers is not now, right now you need to conserve power. I just wanted to say that we're leaving now and that I won't be able to contact you while we're in transit."

As they walked toward the base of the palace and all the people milling about, Mark thought, "We really need to get a designated palace landing zone for the shuttle."

Cricket said, "I've got some ideas, I'll draw up some designs and you can go through them on the ship."

Maren notified them that she was there, as she slowly lowered the shuttle down and people moved out of the way. They boarded the shuttle and a few minutes later they were on board the Poseidon, which entered light drive as soon as they touched down in the landing bay.

The estimated time to reach the Canis Major dwarf galaxy was 22 hours with the new engines, then they would need to exit light drive and proceed at sub-light speeds to locate and rescue them.

After meeting with the bridge crew and outlining what had transpired and what their mission was, Mark gave Athena a quick tour of the Battlestar, since she had never actually been on one and eventually to the royal quarters. After claiming her room, they went and worked out in the gym for a good part of the day and they did some sparring. Athena was a very capable fighter.

Because they had taken off so quickly, much of the crew was still in Atlantis, so the ship seemed oddly empty, even though there was still nearly a hundred crew on board.

After a long day of working out and sparring, they watched a movie and then went to bed.

Alone in the royal bedroom, Mark ended up going over various plans for a dedicated shuttle landing zone for the palace.

There were two designs he liked and couldn't decide between them, so eventually he went with both of them.

The first was a retractable landing zone, so the northwest corner, near Mark's office, could be extended out as a landing pad just long enough for a shuttle to fit on and still lower the ramp, then when not in use it retracted back into the building. It was convenient in that he could leave right from the residence.

The other design was an elevated landing platform supported by either columns or a building (they hadn't decided yet), with an elevated walkway connecting to level two of the palace, that way it could also be used by the public if necessary.

Mark had a sleepless night, partially because he wasn't used to sleeping alone and partially because he was worried about finding the two people before their life support ran out. Then he was worried because he wasn't sure if they could find their home.

But, if they did find their home, there was the possibility of adding another planet to the Federation.

Cricket informed Mark that before they left, she had redirected a few of her beacon seeding ships to some possible locations based on a bunch of gravitational and rotational calculations she had concocted relevant to their location and she would adjust them once they were out of light drive and she had their direction of drift.

Mark eventually fell asleep at his desk.

Gyges had told Athena that Mark was always the first one up, but when he wasn't up before her, Cricket opened the bedroom door and she eventually went in to check on him.

Finding him slumped over his desk like he was made her think something was wrong, so she rushed to his side, asking, "Are you ok, my King?"

Mark stirred awake and said he was ok as he leaned back in his chair to stretch out some of the kinks. Then stood up and continued to work out other kinks that presented themselves.

Oblivious to his nudity, Athena just stared at her naked King as he joked, "Remind me not to fall asleep at my desk again. My back is killing me!"

Athena laughed, "Let me help you with that, my King."

Mark stopped and turned to her, "Just so you know, I'm not hung up on protocols, it's ok to use those in public, but when it's just us you can call me Mark or even 'hey you'." When he saw she kept glancing at his cock, was when he remembered he was naked.

Trying to change the subject, he rubbed his neck and asked, "You can help with this?"

Athena then guided him to the bed and told him to lie down on his front. She then climbed on top, straddling his ass and proceeded to massage his back, neck and shoulders. In no time Mark was feeling relaxed and much better.

She then helped him up off the bed as his stomach grumbled. She watched as he got dressed and they went off to the cafeteria in search of breakfast.

On the way, Athena admitted that before she became an instructor, she was one of the physical therapists, and had taken several massage courses and specialized in sports injuries.

Adam joined them with his breakfast and told them they would be dropping out of light drive within the hour and hopefully it wouldn't take long to locate them. They were drifting, so they weren't expecting them to be at the coordinates they had been provided, but they should be close.

Mark admitted that he had no connection to the universe when he was travelling faster than light and that he missed the connection, but after they dropped out of light drive he should be able to locate them.

As everyone had finished their breakfasts and was just finishing their coffees, the announcement came that the ship would be dropping out of light drive in 2 minutes.

Adam excused himself to go to the bridge and Mark decided that was as good of place as any to be, so off they went.

As the ship dropped out of light drive, Mark felt Cricket restore his connection to the sensor network. They had drifted quite a ways, but Mark was able to easily locate them, unfortunately he didn't seem to be able to communicate with them.

The Poseidon used a tractor beam to direct the powerless vessel into the port side landing bay, as Mark, Athena, some security and some medics went down to the landing bay.

The ship itself was fairly tiny, obviously not meant for prolonged flight in space. It was about the size of a 4 seater airplane. Knocking on the door yielded no response, they also tried to look in windows, but they were fogged up from the inside so they couldn't see anything.

The wings had some sort of solar panels and the bright lights in the landing bay, must've given the ship a bit of a boost, as they could hear some faint noises from the interior and the windows started to clear.