Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 46

Memoirs of Kitty Siam - Dushambi and Qualor.

There was not much for me do the next day after my late night medical adventure with Colonel Connors, so I when I awoke at mid day I found the tray of food that Sala had left for me from the communal breakfast. It seemed that no matter where I was or what I was involved in, Sala either found me directly or sent someone with food to make sure that I had enough to eat. There was always so much for me to do around the village, and my normal days were filled with small problems amongst the villagers, and a few larger problems between the villagers and the military. The military being the alpha types that they are sometimes... well... usually tried to bully the villagers, and being that the villagers were not aggressive by nature they let the military have their way. I was the one that had to stand up for the villagers to make sure they were not always getting pushed around.

After I finished my breakfast I went to the river for a quick wash then changed into my white silk Princess quality sarong. I thought I had been in flight suits, jeans, and such for too long and wanted to feel more lady-like, and little more royal. I had nothing spectacular planned for the day and I even went as far as to contact Neko and put her in charge of the temple matters for the day. Of course this was no problem for her as she was spending more of her time under the temple than she was tending to her military duties. This became a concern of Colonel Danvers who did his best to try to busy her with other things, but she usually found a way out of her assignments and hid out under the temple.

During her time under the temple she had found a way to bypass the security system that required each of us to verify to get under the temple, though we did have to verify twice before the system would accept any of her programming changes. There was still a lot that we did not know about the temple and what was hidden below. Many of the tunnels, corridors, and elevator shafts had collapsed under the Zeta bombardments that the planet had received over the 60,000 or so years that the facility was here. We lacked the heavy equipment needed to dig the tunnels out and though the maintenance bots were doing their best but unlike the ones on Angkor, these ones were not suited for such a heavy task and were fewer in number.

When we broke into one of the subterranean storage lockers we found thousands of picks, shovels, sledge hammers, wheelbarrows, star drills and various other types of equipment that you would expect to find being used in a mining operation. There was a roughly hewn tunnel that led to what appeared to be a vertical shaft on the same level as the equipment locker, but it was inaccessible to humans. It was on our list to excavate, but it was way down the list below the life support and electrical systems that still needed our attention.

Since Neko was handling the temple, today I was free to finally go into meditation mode and spend some time quality working on transcribing Enoch's journal. I had abandoned this project for way too long and was happy to get back to it and away from the drama of village life. I had several hours of uninterrupted translating until I heard Megyn stirring on the bed across from me. Her groans told me that she had woke up and discovered the headache that the medical system warned about. When she called out to me I applied the bookmark to my work and went to check on my patient.

Megyn confirmed that she did have a bit of a headache but it was not as bad as the ones she normally woke up with, even on the morning when she had not been drinking the night before. I offered her some of the food that Sala had left but she was not in the mood to eat, she was too concerned about what had happened to her and how she got back to my hut. I asked her to stand and as she tried she was a bit wobbly since her body was still healing and that for the first time in about twenty some years she was standing on legs that were connected to a hip made of her own bone.

I assisted her in removing her nightgown, at first she resisted and once again I had to ask her to trust me. When I finally got her gown off I asked her to have a look in the small hand held mirror that one of the villagers had found for me before the Zeta attacked. As she admired her newly repaired body I assured her that the red marks and bruises would heal in time and that she would be sore for a few weeks. I explained to her all that had been done during the night. She was amazed that she could be put back together again in such a short time.

I explained to her that Annunaki medical technology was far more advanced then anything that the PGC had available, or had ever seen. I did caution her that while her body appeared as if she was in her thirties, her interior parts and pieces were still their original age and that she could still be damaged now as she was damaged before. In other words, she did not have my genetically enhanced healing properties. I left that part out but I did stress that she could be injured just as before if she were not careful going forward.

Once Megyn realized that most of the day had passed she dressed herself quickly once it dawned her that she needed to get back to her ship to organize her people into damage assessment teams. Her ship had taken major damage as it tried to fight off the two Javorts. Once she was dressed smartly in her Marine uniform I escorted her back to her ship. Just as I had anticipated Colonel Danvers was already involved in trying to take charge of her ship and her crew. I also anticipated him making a big deal about her not staying with her ship instead of wandering around the village with me. Megyn was not too happy being dressed down by a supply officer and just as she was about to let him have it I stepped into the conversation. I explained to Colonel Danvers that while Colonel Conner and I were having dinner in my hut she began to experience dizziness severe abdominal pain and that I took her to the temple. Of course this was only a half-truth, but Danvers would never know the real extent of the injuries that I had treated, nor was I going to tell him.

Megyn was a little miffed at me for cutting her off and after Danvers moved off I explained to her that I was just trying to keep the peace, which of course was one of my jobs as Priestess. We both had a laugh together after she apologized for wanting to slap the taste out of his mouth. At least I knew that from my actions in confronting Danvers for her, she knew I had her back and from that point forward our relationship grew stronger.

We parted company, as Megyn was mobbed by her crew with status reports and such for her to review. I knew that neither the Shinawatra's crew or my villagers were welcome aboard her super secret spy ship so I made my way down to the river to enjoy some quiet time to soak in the water and have a well needed bath. I had several hours of peace and quiet and during that time I did some work on translating Enoch's journal as the cool water of the river caressed my body. All was going well until Sala found me and offered me a plate of food that she had put aside for me after the village had its dinner. I loved her to death, but her popping up at all the wrong times was beginning to vex me.

As I ate Sala undressed and slipped into the water behind me and started washing my back. I do not know how she knew that I still needed to wash, but she did and she jumped right in and took it upon herself to get things done. I was just about to ask her how she knew where I was and that I still needed to wash but she respectfully cut me off and said that we had to hurry as the "new ship people" were urgently looking for me. That told me that something had gone wrong and there was yet another problem for this Princess to solve. The first possible malfunction that came to mind was Colonel Danvers, but I kept my supposition to myself for the moment.

I finished my dinner quickly and Sala finished my washing just as fast. After exiting the water she assisted me in drying off. She was toweling off my body while I was working on my hair, and as we were finishing up my nose caught the smell of someone approaching. We were both standing there naked with towels in our hands when a burly sergeant looked down on us from a slight hill that over looked the river. I was sure that he got a good look at us both standing there naked before he cleared his throat and called out, "Excuse me Princess!"

As he called out I walked toward him, still drying my hair while Sala slipped into her sarong. Once my hair was dry enough I dressed myself in my royal white silk sari using my wardrobe device. He offered his hand to assist me up the hill and I accepted, though I really did not need assistance, but he was being a gentleman so I played along.

Once Sala and I were at the top of the hill with the sergeant he asked me to return to his ship with him. There was urgency in his voice as he informed me that Colonel Connor needed to see me immediately. Of course I was not in her chain of command and did not have to hurry, but I figured that if she thought that something was urgent, it probably was and that I should comply with her sergeant and hurry along.

The sergeant was in pretty good shape and began to double time it along the path that led to where the Siegfried was parked. Since I knew the way quite well there was no need to follow the sergeant and without breaking stride I changed my clothing into something a bit better suited for running. Now wearing a simple black t-shirt, tan cargo shorts and brown hiking boots I quickly passed the sergeant and made my way to the Siegfried. I wonder what he would have thought if I had passed him in my feline form?

I asked the first crewman I came to where the Colonel was located and he directed me to a maintenance tent that had been set up in the shadow of the hulking ship between the forward landing struts. As I entered the tent the first officer that laid eyes upon me called the tent to attention. Given my military background I was quick to make eye contact with the Captain and give the order, "At ease." I found out later that Colonel Connors issued orders to her crew that I was to be give proper respect due to an allied person of Royal rank at all times. This was a complete 180 from the way that Colonel Danvers and some of his folks treated me. At times when I was around Danvers and his followers I felt as if some of them viewed me as an enemy.

Colonel Connor ordered the tent cleared once the military formalities were concluded. The last person to leave sealed the tent behind her and posted guards outside. Megyn and I sat at her direction at a data terminal that was hardwired to the Central Core of her ship. The cooling system inside the ship had failed and time spent inside the ship had to be limited during the daylight hours due to the heat. Megyn began with a hastily put together presentation that detailed the damage that her ship had received, then she showed me a list of things that could be salvaged from the slaver's ship that had brought me and the villagers to Anora.

Together we compared the list of things that could be used and the damage that could be repaired, but the reparable list was much shorter than the list of things that could not be repaired. One of the items caught my eye and I knew that the Siegfried would never see space again. There were three distinct areas along the keel of the ship that had been burned completely through by sustained disruptor fire from the Javorts. Had their been a space dock in orbit the ship could have been salvaged but we just did not have the equipment on the ground to repair the ship enough for it to survive the stress of transiting through the atmosphere and returning to space.

I made the suggestion about reversing the list and trying to transfer the major components from the Siegfried to the slaver ship so that perhaps they could use that ship to return to friendly space. Megyn said that her crew had mentioned that to the engineers from the Shinawatra and it was decided without a space dock that this was not possible either.

I gave some thought to this situation as I continued to stare at the display in front of us. As I looked at the information I thought that is was not really urgent, then given what I knew about the military and how they love their "dog and pony" shows, I realized that there was another shoe or in this case, combat boot that had yet to drop.

I did not have to wait long for the other item of footwear to noisily impact against the floor of the tent. I giggled softly as Megyn changed the displayed data on the monitor to show video of a large fleet of ships moving through space then moving into a very large yellow jump point in front of the fleet. While I was watching the ships Megyn was pulling up a series of navigation charts on a second terminal. Several of the ships I was watching I recognized as being Zeta carriers and heavy cruisers, the others I did not recognize, but I knew they also belonged to the Zeta.

Megyn began her narration and I paid close attention to her every word now that I knew something was about to happen that involved our mutual enemy. The Siegfried had come across the Zeta fleet about a month ago while searching for the Zeta's home world. Since the Zeta were picking off our planets one at a time, the PGC military decided that it was time to take the fight to the enemy. The Siegfried never found their home world but they did find this fleet moving through space.

In the old days before jump engines were miniaturized enough to fit on a star ship, the ships had to rely on a system of jump gates scattered throughout the galaxy. A ship entered the gate on one end then followed a beam through hyperspace to a gate at the other end where they would exit back into normal space. While in hyperspace a ship had to travel in a straight line from point A to point B. There could be no deviation from the course marked by the beam or the ship would never find the exit gate and be lost in hyperspace forever.

Though the gates are no longer necessary, the straight line navigation is. There are limits to the length of time that particular ships can spend in hyperspace due to the size of their engines, their fuel supply, and the endurance capabilities of their crew. This is why most long voyages are done in a series of jumps rather than one long jump. Also the longer you stay in hyperspace the more chance you have of drifting off course and exiting from hyperspace into a nova, a nebula, or an asteroid field. All of these and other things must be considered while plotting your course before entering hyperspace.

Taking all of this into consideration, the Siegfried was able to follow the Zeta fleet at a distance, and once they followed them through the first series of jumps they were able to determine where their next jump would be and where the fleet would exit. As Megyn explained the data that her crew compiled, she pulled up a third display that showed the path that the Zeta had taken, and projected the path that they were expected to take.

I looked closely at the star chart but did not recognize the system that appeared to be their final destination, but when Megyn zoomed in I could see that the point indicated with the name Epsilon Eridani, and slightly below the system name were the words, "CENTRAL COMMAND."

Who's Central Command was it was my first question, because if it was the "Central Command" on Angkor I needed to get back there right away and get the people there to safety. I knew that they could take another plague missile attack without too much loss of life, but if the Zeta decided to use mass drivers and bombard the planet's surface with asteroids, all life on the surface would be extinguished. I looked again at the video of the Zeta's ships and confirmed that there were several in that armada that would be large enough and probably capable of having mass drivers.

I kept flipping back and forth between the displays that Megyn was showing me trying to figure out where they were attacking. I know I could have asked but I needed to figure this out for myself in case this was some sort of trick to get me to confirm the location of the Annunaki's Central Command. I asked Megyn to zoom in on the Central Command planet, and then it hit me. This planet had three moons, and my Central Command planet was moonless. It was then that I asked Megyn what she needed from me.

She needed to get word to her commanders at Central Command that an attack was imminent, and by her crew's calculations they had less than two weeks before that armada was in range to strike at the command structure of the PGC. I ran some quick calculations in my head and announced that I could probably be there with the Tenshi in about a week, maybe less but I would have to make stops along the way as the FTL drive was not meant for such a sustained flight. Of course, neither was I. There were no sleeping or bathroom facilities on the Tenshi, nor was there a replication station to provide food.

My thoughts of the trip were interrupted when Megyn spoke up and boldly told me that I could not make the trip by myself as this area of space was heavily defended. She went on to describe how I would need to provide the proper friend or foe (IFF) codes and biometric data with in seconds of entering the Central Command security zone. She was pretty sure that whatever DNA I possessed would not be accepted and that her or one of her senior officers would have to go to be allowed entry to that sector of space. I was tempted to tell her that I was once a member of the very secretive PTB and KC but since I was not officially indoctrinated to those groups, my DNA pattern may have been deleted from their system when I disappeared in transit to Central Command from Mars.

This could have been a ploy to have one of her officers take off in my Tenshi and never return. What a technological leap that would be from the PGC. For this reason there was NO WAY I was going to turn my new toy over to total strangers. I thought about sending Neko or Jarro but there was not enough time to train them to fly an Annunaki ship, especially this one. Megyn gave me some time to think about all that had been said and what I had seen, and during the silence I was getting the feeling that she was waiting for me to freely offer up the Tenshi.

The Colonel broke the silence when she asked if I had any suggestions on how she could warn the Central Command. I keyed in on the word "warn" which was unexpected given my thoughts of her trying to get her hands on my Tenshi. I played along with that to see where it would go. I suggested that there was possibly a way to contact another branch of the military that fell under the jurisdiction of the Central Command. I asked her directly if this would be an acceptable option, and I was surprised to hear her confirm that it was.

With that new piece of information we made our way to the temple. When we arrived there was only one monk there at the time, and after we exchanged greetings I led the Colonel behind the altar where I pressed my hand to the DNA reader. I felt the familiar tingle as my DNA was read, and as usual I was greeted with, "Greetings Princess Maew" as the heavy stone slabs slid apart and granted us entrance to the facility below.

The Colonel asked me a few questions about this facility, but I chose not to answer. After all, when she asked what this place was used for, I had no answer to give her because we still did not know. I did point out several rooms as we passed the medical station, the food replication station, maintenance control, and a few other areas of interest. We entered the Communications Station where I invited her to take a seat next to me at the main console. I was not worried about what she would see here as most of the communications action would be taking place in the portal room where the portal would open and allow me to communicate with Sheba on Angkor.