Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 37

Rayven laughed, "That's why everyone thinks he's a god!"

Mark shot her a look that conveyed, 'Don't go there!', as she laughed and defensively acknowledged, "I know! Gods aren't real!", as she went back to eating her breakfast.

Ra'ki was curious, "So, if gods aren't real, do you guys worship anything?"

Solara said, "We celebrate and praise the sun as without it there would be no life at all, but I wouldn't say we worship it."

Mark then added, "Even with the Colonials you mentioned, many of the planets they encountered already had life on them in some form or other, but they were seeding intelligent life, so I guess they would be about as close to a god as anything, but even they were mortal and they would not have been able to seed life without a sun."

Everyone looked at him with confusion, so he felt compelled to explain, "OK, so I did some digging into the 'Colonials' that Ra'ki mentioned. I think they might have been the Mazjik! About 3 million Earth years ago, they launched twelve Battlestars for what was called the 'Colonial Project'. Their primary mission was search out and seed intelligent life on habitable planets, but they also did experiments in actually terraforming planets... Atlanterra is an example of a terraformed planet.

Cricket thinks that maybe they stumbled upon these rifts and couldn't find their way home, but continued their mission indefinitely, as they eventually lost all twelve of the project ships. Now before you say anything, yes Earth was one of their experiments, but they broke a cardinal rule about giving away their technology and the original Atlantis was the result of that!

When they realized their planet was doomed, the technology gift was revealed and they decided that Earth might be a planet they could relocate to, since they already had some of their technology. They just weren't prepared for all the war, so they opted to move on. Fortunately, the Atlanteans had responsibly used the technology gifts, and that's why they decided to save the Atlanteans from the impending war.

They didn't realize their sun had sterilized them until after they settled on Atlanterra."

Adam then excused himself, getting up and saying, "Well, I must return to the bridge, thank you for making breakfast educational!"

Everyone laughed as they finished up their breakfasts and disposed of their plates and utensils as they left the cafeteria. They went for a walk around the ship, taking the long way to the workout area and giving breakfast a chance to digest before participating in a morning workout, followed by some sparring. Then it was off to some showers and to relax for an hour or two until the Cleito arrived.

A little over two hours later, the Cleito dropped out of FTL near Thulark. Mark was waiting on the bridge with Adam, when Commander Northrop called.

He looked upset as he greeted the two men, "My King... Commander... I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

Before Mark could ask, Adam spoke, "What's the news Grant?"

Grant straightened up, "The bastard killed himself! It looks like he bit into his wrist, severed a major artery and bled out. He did it when we made the announcement that we were just about to arrive at Thulark. We have him in a medibed, but the technicians don't expect him to recover. We still have Hawker though."

Just then Grant looked off to the side, nodded, then returned to face them, "I've just been informed that the medibed has declared Sebastian dead. We will transfer his body into a burial pod for you."

Mark looked disappointed, "Thank you Commander, it's unfortunate that he was such a coward! Transfer Sebastian's body and Hawker into the holding cells on the Sentinel and leave it here for the Poseidon.

Commander Northrop, you and the Cleito have earned some well-deserved R&R, make your way back to Atlanterra to get a new Sentinel, and once you get there, I want you and your crew to take a month off. We'll take care of Sebastian's remains and Hawker."

Grant saluted, "Thank you, my King! Be safe!", as he started issuing orders to move Sebastian's body and Hawker to the Sentinel before the call was disconnected.

A few minutes later, the Cleito was disconnected from the Sentinel and they began to head back in the direction of Atlanterra, proceeding at sub-light speeds until their FTL drive was ready to go again. As they moved away, the Poseidon moved into position and docked with the waiting Sentinel.

Mark and Adam made a quick call to Chancellor Shireen to inform her that they had Brian Hawker in custody, and that they were bringing him back to Silica so they could put him on trial.

Chancellor Shireen asked what happened to his Federation partner, and when they told her that he killed himself, she laughed and called him a coward, but then surprisingly said she wouldn't be opposed to Hawker falling out of an airlock. It would save them the time and costs of putting him on trial. She then asked if the Federation could just keep him, after all it was a Federation planet they attacked.

After a brief discussion, Mark agreed to give Hawker a two-door cell on the Thulark space station, if they decided they wanted him, he could be picked up and transported back to Silica.

Before going down to give Hawker the news, Mark and Adam sat down to go over some of the surveillance footage that Cricket had flagged, from their month long trip from the Cantara rift. The holding cells had library access, so they had both spent a lot of time going through what was on the library.

Hawker seemed to be impressed that a nobody from a backward planet had been thrust into the role and responsibilities of a king and, yet time and again, calmly and intelligently handled everything that was thrown at him, and that the Federation had indeed advanced by leaps and bounds in the short period he had reigned.

Sebastian always had an excuse saying if he was given the same support Mark had, he could've done just as good of a job. Hawker just argued that he didn't think so... there was just something about Mark that made him think he was in fact on a different level than anyone else he had ever known, especially after reading about the Magellan discovery.

Even Sebastian admitted that he wasn't sure how Mark had done that. He also admitted to a few other things Mark had done that he wasn't sure he could have.

Every time Hawker said Mark was a better leader than Sebastian, just infuriated Sebastian even more and eventually it came to where they wouldn't even talk to each other as they waited in their adjacent cells.

Their surveillance review ended when they saw the method Sebastian had used to kill himself. He literally bit deep into his wrist and ripped open an artery and bled to death. His medibots notified the medical techs, but the damage was beyond instant repair and he had lost too much blood. It took less than a minute for the medical techs to get there, but Sebastian had already stopped moving and the pool of blood around him kept expanding. They stopped watching when the medical techs took him away.

Medibots could repair cuts and scrapes and other minor health issues, but not major traumas. The medibots that Mark had, were linked directly with the AI, plus he had a significant amount of extra medibots configured into the lattice tattoos on his body. They would be able to repair pretty much anything up to being decapitated or being shot in the heart or brain, well, not repair exactly, but they could stop any bleeding and sustain him until he could get into a medibed.

After seeing the surveillance, they decided Brian Hawker could sit alone for a bit longer. Adam was going to arrange for Hawker to be transferred to the Thulark Space Station, while Mark returned to the royal quarters to inform the group about the change in plans.

Everyone was disappointed in Sebastian's cowardly demise, but they were happy that he was no longer a concern that they needed to worry about.

Astra however wished to go see Brian before they left, so they made their way down to the starboard bay to await for his transfer over to the space station.

When the guards escorted Brian into the hangar and toward the shuttle, Astra walked up and kicked him in the balls, yelling, "I can't believe you just left me there to die, you piece of shit!"

As Brian dropped to his knees holding his crotch and his face twisted in agony, Astra continued, "Fortunately, I've got some new friends that appreciate me for my technical skills... and I'm sure my quarters are far better than yours will be. Enjoy the rest of your life!"

She then turned away and stormed out of the launch bay as everyone else turned to follow, except Mark, Adam and the security.

Mark said, "Brian Hawker, through video evidence and first hand accounts, you have been found guilty of war crimes and genocide against the innocent people of Thulark. Chancellor Shireen, of your home planet, Silica, has requested that the Atlantean Federation handle your incarceration. Since the genocide was an accident and you did make an attempt to defend fellow space travellers from attack, I feel compelled to be a bit lenient, as such, you are sentenced to life, with no chance for parole for 10 years, to be served aboard the Thulark Space Station. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Brian stared at the floor, while still cupping his crotch, as Mark read him his sentence. When asked if he had anything to say, he did look sincere as he apologized for the accident at Thulark, he then asked for Mark to relay his apology to Astra for abandoning her. He then said he would accept his punishment and hoped to one day serve the Federation that he had come to admire from his research. He then asked if there was any way he could use the computer in his cell to continue to develop and design technologies?

Mark asked Cricket, "How firewalled are prison terminals?"

Cricket replied, "All prison computers are setup with normal library access, so they can get news, watch videos, and take some basic courses, but they also have an assortment or writing, drawing and design programs, and they can request specialty programs. It gives prisoners a sense of purpose and can often be used to trade for a reduction in their sentence. They do have communications, but the communication time is limited, recorded and monitored."

Mark turned back to Brian and said, "Prison terminals have a variety of writing, drawing and design programs, plus you will still have access to all the usual stuff available through the library. Then, for anything you design, the Federation has full rights to and if your designs are worthy, they can be traded for time off your sentence."

He simply said, "Thank You, your majesty!", as security led him into the shuttle for transport to the space station.

Having never been to a space station yet, Mark decided to accompany the prisoner transport, as Adam said he was going to get the Poseidon ready for the trip back to Earth.

As he boarded the shuttle he sat across from Brian, who had a security person on each side of him, with another sitting beside Mark.

Soon the shuttle was flying out the starboard launch bay as Brian looked out the windows at the intimidating and colossal Battlestar/Sentinel ship they just departed from.

He then turned to Mark and said, "From what I have read and seen in your library, you have come a long way in a short time and I am very impressed. You take risks, yet every move you make seems to be well calculated. If the Silican government had allowed us to take some risks, we would never have done what we did. We never intended to harm anyone, well at least I didn't. I know Sebastian didn't like you at all, but I think deep down he realized that, despite your background, you were actually a far better leader than he was. Dare I say, you're a far better leader than any other leader I have ever read about. By the way, thank you for allowing me to continue to design technology!"

Mark looked at him and said, "You are an intelligent man, Brian, it would be a shame to let your intelligence waste in prison. I'm sure you have all kinds of designs you want to develop in your head, show me what you can come up with."

Brian then asked, "If I may ask, what kinds of technology are you looking for that will be of value to the Federation?"

Mark thought for a second, "I honestly don't know, right now I would say the two top items on my wish list would be how to travel faster than FTL and how to communicate when we are in FTL. The Federation is so vast even with FTL it can take weeks to get from one side of our space to the other, and while we are in FTL we can't communicate so we perform comm stops on a regular basis to get updates and allow people to communicate."

Brian smiled, "I've already got some theories on the faster than FTL stuff, and if my theories work, then you wouldn't need to communicate in FTL."

Mark smiled, "Show me what you can do!"

Soon they were approaching the Thulark Space Station. It was an impressive looking ship, with lots of people milling about as there was a couple of transports currently docked and unloading.

The far end of the space station contained the security barracks and training facility, which is where the shuttle went to land. They were met by more security personnel, who then took possession of Brian Hawker and led him to his new home. Mark accompanied them down to see the cells.

Brian was given a two-door cell, it was a basic 4 metre square room with a long twin bed on one side and a desk with terminal on the other side toward the outer wall. Beside the desk was a clothing synth locker and the desk had a drink dispenser. The near side of the room had an open toilet, sink and mirror on one side of the door and an open shower on the opposite side, so the entrance wall provided a bit of privacy.

The cell also had a towel and toiletries dispenser, but the system knew what was recycled. If you hadn't recycled your toothbrush, cup, clothing, etc, the system knew and wouldn't give you new ones. Also to prevent wasting water, the shower only worked for a few minutes each day. Then to give people some socializing, there was a central cafeteria, so you got to leave your cell 3 times per day.

Seeing the two-door cell though, Mark couldn't help but think what was going through Sebastian's head. Surely he should have realized he would've ended up in a two-door cell, and pressing the button to get sucked out the airlock surely would've been a less painful, and probably quicker, death than biting his own wrist and bleeding to death!

Curious, Mark asked the security personnel if someone could accidentally eject themselves from the cell. They assured him that someone couldn't accidentally push the 'room service' button. They explained that the first time you pushed the button, it turned red and began a 2-minute countdown. Then the button would turn yellow for 5 seconds, and if you pressed the button then, it would notify security and do another 2-minute countdown and then turn green for 5 seconds. If you truly wanted to eject yourself, you had to press the button while it was green, otherwise the process would cancel and reset.

It also truly was a room service button, if you ejected yourself the room reset itself, although anything in your computer was then archived and removed from that terminal.

Seeing the prison facility on the space station, it seemed fairly humane and civil, everyone had their own rooms and prisoners had pretty much everything they needed to keep their sanity. The only thing they didn't have was conjugal visits, although there was access to porn on their terminals.

Mark then took a quick tour of the space station and talked to some of the visitors and staff before returning to the Poseidon.

Soon after his return they were leaving Thulark and heading back to Earth.