Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 03 Ch. 11

The General finally received a report about the drone from the ship which had been chasing the alien ship down. It had taken time to get to the fleet since once they had fought the battle they had changed their base of operations. The drone had to fly to several different star systems before it had located them. When he received the report he had been less than pleased since that damn egg licking captain had lost his ship. In the process he had also given away there was an enemy out there. Now they were going to have to completely rethink what they were doing and how they were doing it.

How he wished he had the damn crew from that ship to give to the priests. Frankly he wanted to strip the hide off the former captain and have a new rug made for him. It would have been quite satisfying to know that idiot was lower than the dirt on his feet. With a very angry hiss of annoyance he stalked out of his ready room and into tactical. When he did every officer stood tall and refused to meet his eyes. The General couldn't help but let out a satisfied hiss due to the show of fear. If they feared him chances were good they would be too busy covering their own tails to consider taking him out.

"Have we received anything from the Emperor?" The C in received was a sibilant hiss. His eyes were looking over the tactical table to see what was currently being done. He had changed his orders from searching for the enemy to include finding the new aliens. Their tech was lower than the Valtegan's and would make good slaves. They had fought well even with their lower tech and would make good slaves for the Empire.

After that bomb, or whatever it had been, had taken out the troop transport he had demanded some of the ships be captured. That had been done but even as they were over running the ships the enemies on board had fought hard. Very few of them had been recovered and they had been handed to the priests to get information from them. Several of the ships had been brought on board one of the repair ships for discection. He wanted to know as much about the tech as possible. Any star charts and navigation information would be good as well.

That was taking time since the tech was so different but they were slowly getting information from them. While that was happening the various scout ships had been sent to get as much information from the one system they knew about. It was going to be very tricking since it was obviously a very heavily populated system. There was also the fact there appeared to be one of the first enemies ships there which made it even more sensitive. He had taken the time to make some very grisly threats to the captains and crews.

The General had made a point of letting them know that if they failed in anyway their families would pay the price. He had very carefully detailed what he would have the priests back on the homeworld do if they failed. Their entire families would die screaming as the priests showed them the price of their relatives failure. That had been reasonably satisfying since the fear pheromones from the crews had been strong.

Now as far as the creatures they had captured most of them were not being very willing to talk. The priests were forced to be careful with them since they didn't have many. Even having shown them what they might be facing hadn't gotten much from them. One of his crew who had been turned over had been tortured in front of them and finally flayed before he died. The creatures had just laughed at them. That the General didn't understand since the idea of being in the hands of the priests made even him shudder. How the hell could they laugh in the face of that?

~~~

The Emperor's senior Generals had received the information from the drone. For the most part the battle wasn't too exciting even though the others had fought well. Based on the sensor scans and reported battle damage the tech was lower than theirs by a fair amount. Unless they had a massive military or ships they hadn't seen, taking out this enemy wouldn't be a major problem. The ships were significantly smaller, slower, and weaker than most of the Valtegan's equivalents.

Now the weapon used at the final end of the battle did have them concerned. They still didn't know what the weapon was but based on the readings it was a very high energy weapon. The destruction it had caused had actually caused enough of a reaction for the Generals to release the fear scent. One thing they had detected was a huge surge of gravitons. Though they didn't know why that happened or how it explained what happened to an extent.

After reviewing the date a number of times and slowing the footage down they could see indications of stuff being sucked in. Granted it happened in a matter of microseconds but there were indications of anything within reach being pulled in by the gravity waves. The only thing they could think of was a black hole had been formed momentarily. How such a primitive species could do that they didn't know.

As far as the rest of the data they didn't know the status of the light cruiser which had chased the enemy ship out of the system. Since they didn't know where it had ended up heading they were going to assume the light combatant had been destroyed.

Once they had all the results compiled they forwarded them to the Emperors personal staff. None of the Generals wanted to be close to the Emperor when he received the information. His tantrums were world renown and when he was well and truly pissed anyone the anger was directed at died. The Emperor had removed entire families from the rolls of the first egg in fits of fury. On the other side of the claw this might get the Emperor to release more of the military to start searching for the enemy. Now two enemies.

~~~

It had been several days since Sue Anne had talked to the lady from the FBI and she had already decided to hire her. The same went with the other person and they were going to be starting the next day. After a great deal of thought she had placed a call to the Sholan Embassy. Since she knew her office was bugged she decided to simply make the call and keep it generic. That had taken some time to get a call made and patched through.

Eventually she had been directed to an Admiral Demopolus. Once connected she had to blink since he definitely came across as a man with an attitude. "Good Afternoon Admiral, my name is Sue Anne Hoag. I am a partner with Billy Madlax and I am running his operations on Earth. I need to get a message to him about some issues which I need a quick response to. I know that we use ships to transport messages from one system to another but do the Sholan's have anything faster?" She really hoped they did.

Ike had accepted the call after reviewing the information he had about the woman and the company she had started. "And good Afternoon to you Mrs. Hoag and it is nice to finally talk to you. Billy is a good friend of mine and from what he indicated you are a friend of his as well." He had been warned that her office was bugged. "Would it be possible for you to come to Switzerland? I have a number of questions for you about your company and if you can come I can see about getting a message to Billy somewhat faster than we normally do. Their ships are faster than ours."

Sue Anne almost frowned at that question. "That might take a bit of time Admiral since I don't have a passport currently and have never left the country before. Is there any other way we can do this? I really do need to get a message to Billy as soon as possible. It is in relation to the company and some of the offers I have been receiving for building or modifying various engines. The re-crystallization of the tubes is going quite well but with the engine mods I really do need to talk to him."

Ike leaned back and scratched at his heavy beard. "Give me a good contact number and I will call you back as soon as I can. I think we can work around the passport issue but I need to make a few calls. It shouldn't take very long to make the calls and get approval to bring you over. If you want we can bring your husband over as well."

Sue Anne couldn't help but look rather skeptical about that. "Wouldn't that be breaking a number of laws? Not interested in getting arrested in anyway shape or form." That would really screw her day up if it happened.

Ike became more serious. "Mrs. Hoag we are currently moving to a war footing. Certain things can be done now which wouldn't have been possible earlier. I am going to let you go and I will call you back as soon as possible." Once he had the information he disconnected.

~~~

The ships from Shola had started to arrive in the system. Since the various ships sent from Shola were of differing ages they had been broken up into three groups, fastest, fast, and slower. Even the slow ships were still faster than most Terran ships. This didn't include the Sandi due to the engine mods. They were in the fastest group though they were just keeping up. The engines were working well but they were running about 90% of their max.

When they arrived in system the lead ship had received the messages on where to go and what sorts of orbits they needed to maintain. For most of them it was to take up a parking orbit next to the Rijishi and start offloading the supplies. A large number were cryo chambers which once filled would be reloaded and sent back to Shola for medical treatment. The majority were Sholan's who had been hurt in the battle but there were a number of human's as well. They were the ones for whom Terran medical couldn't treat.

For the Sandi they were told to land where they had been previously parked near the Barque. The Barque had been replaced with a larger ship and more staff but they would still be near it. When Vangie received the message he had to smile. It would be nice to see some of the warriors he had formerly worked with. He was also looking forward to seeing how the women were doing. They had received the report about the one female which had died in an accident over the ocean. To be honest it hadn't caused too much sadness. Nobody had liked the female at all.

The flight to earth didn't take to long but he did send a message to have some techs available. The engines were working reasonably well but there were a few issues he was concerned about. To be safe he had decided to have the engines checked to ensure they were doing fine. Most of it was because the engines were still rather experimental. Even though he trusted Billy's brain sometimes shit happened. He didn't want shit to happen while he was on board and especially not the females.

They did eventually land as directed. As they were coming into the system the energy signatures were wildly different than the first time. There were far more combatants flying around and construction had started on what he assumed was defenses. The system did look like it had been kicked into over drive and he had to wonder what all was being done. This was especially true as they approached earth. The number of combatants had increased and active sensors were dirtying the EM spectrum.

Even with the landing they had been queried a number of times to ensure they were who they said they were. Once they had finally landed he wanted to collapse and pant even though he had simply been flying. "Okay gentleman, shut the systems down, start the watches on the entrance, and all that other good stuff. You know what needs doing. I am going over to the Barque and check in. There should be some techs coming to take a look at the engines. Let them on board but keep a close watch on them."

Vangie stood from the command chair and headed towards the exit. As he left the ship there was already a warrior there on watch. He gave him a nod before heading to the barque. Other than the humans he wasn't sure who or what he might be taking back. The ship wasn't huge but it did have a reasonable amount of cargo space.

When he reached the Barque he saluted the warriors on watch. "Captain Vangie Ashkeron reporting as ordered. I was ordered to report to the Ambassador." He handed over his orders and waited. Once verified they called for an escort and Vangie was shown onto the ship.

~~~

The Admiral hadn't called Sue Anne back but he had sent instructions to report to the local airport that evening with her husband. The message had included information on what they needed and how they were going to be brought to Switzerland. What made her raise an eyebrow was Sue Anne found they were being transported via a Sholan vessel. That had shocked the daylights out of her. What had also shocked the daylights out of her was the information had been given to her by the FBI agent.

She had been asked to come to the COO's office which she did. When she had arrived the woman had handed her a paper. It informed Sue Anne the office was clear of any bugs. "You are going to be taken to the Admiral via a Sholan vessel. I also have a secondary itinerary on a flight from here in the morning. I can't tell you why it is being done this way", she didn't know, " but it was decided this was of vital importance. Bring your husband with and they will take care of everything." Once she had given that information she turned back to her computer.

With a slight expression of annoyance she left the office and headed home. Once she had informed her husband of what they were doing he grinned. "Oh goody, a vacation." Other than that they simply packed their bags and quietly left the house. Since they were feeling paranoid knowing the offices were being bugged they slipped out the back and through a hole in their back fence. Their boys had made than many years ago and it had never been fixed.

Once on the other side they walked to their friends house and asked them for a ride. "Oh, I can't explain why but can you bring our vehicle to the airport in the morning?" She handed the keys over before they headed out.

~~~

Back on Shola Billy was in his office when Sandi walked in. "I have Crystal outside and she would like to talk to you. She didn't say why but she did indicate it was important." Sandi had an idea why she wanted to talk to Billy but it was for Crystal to say.

Billy looked up and smiled. "I was expecting this. Do me a favor and get us something to drink and then have her come in." He stood up and moved over to a comfortable seating area he had made for him. Even if he was now an Ambassador he was also a homeboy who preferred a relaxed environment when possible.

Sandi left the room and came back a short time later with a tray of some snack food and coffee. Crystal followed behind her and ended up settling down in one of the comfortable seats. Before Billy said anything he waited for Sandi to leave the room. "What can I do for you Crystal? Please get something to drink and a snack if you want." He poured some coffee and added a few of the snacks to a small plate before leaning back in the chair.

Crystal looked at the food but decided it might not be a good idea. Her stomach felt like it was in a knot and if she ate anything it might not remain down. If it did she knew it wouldn't digest well. "Thank you Sir but not right now, thanks for taking a few minutes to see me."

Billy wanted to roll his eyes but he didn't. "Crystal call me Billy please. I knew you before I was all high falutin so I want you to talk to me like you did back then. Now what can I do for you hun?" He had a feeling he knew why she was there as well.

Crystal gave him a shy smile before she replied. This was going to be so hard to say. "Billy I sorta think of you as a favorite uncle. I, I, I wanted to get your approval to maybe start seeing Kingie. We have talked about it several times and I really care for him. We have talked to my therapist and they think it shouldn't be a problem. They said it shouldn't be a problem as long as we both agree it isn't some sort of..." She didn't want to continue. Crystal knew what she was feeling for him was real and not some sort of desperation.

Billy couldn't help but feel a warmth when she indicated how she felt about him. It felt rather good to feel that way and know he had an impact on her life. "Crystal if you want to see Kingie you have my full approval. He is a wonderful young man and I know he cares a great deal for you. As far as thinking it might be some sort of desperation just to know you are of some worth don't. I know Kingie and I know you. You are a wonderful young woman. You survived what was done to you. It hasn't been easy for you but you haven't let it slow you down at all."

Crystal slowly looked up at him and gave him a happy smile. She didn't think he would have a problem with her seeing Kingie but Crystal felt she really did need to ask. It had been so hard to come here and talk to him but she had needed an outside person to talk to. "Thank you Billy and that means lots to me." She felt better now about that. "I do have one other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I want to go back to school. I know it is going to be hard for me but I am not going to let what happened keep me locked up in a house." She had to be able to stand on her own two feet. If she couldn't what would she be bringing to the relationship, it would be a weak female who depended on others to take care of her.

Billy took a sip of coffee as he finished munching on a slice of cheese. "You are welcome and good. If you have any questions talk to Dani about school. I know she is having a few issues since much of what she learned is considered outdated. I will have Sandi look into this and see what might be needed. Now I am going to be having a Embassy party this weekend and both you and Kingie are invited. I expect you to be there with him. I need to get back to work hun but before you go let me give you a good hug." He stood and when she did wrapped his arms around her and held her for a few moments. "Such a brave young woman."

She blushed but once the hug was released she quietly left the room. Once she left Sandi came back in. "I have some information for you Billy. It is in reference to the estate you asked us to look into. Do you have a few minutes?"

He picked up his coffee and plate before walking over to his desk and settled down. "I always have time for you Sandi..." Just for good measure he waggled his eyebrows at her.

She glowered at him before sitting down in a chair across from his desk. "We have purchased the property and work has started to bring it up to code and make it livable..." She continued talking about what they were doing to it. The property wasn't huge but it had plenty of room for his family and the embassy staff if they wanted to move out there.

Once Sandi left Billy had to contact Satasha. *Hey love, I just had Crystal here. She wanted my permission to start officially seeing Kingie. She said I was almost like a favorite uncle to her.* He felt so special for the moment.

Satasha was relaxing in their Leska's quarters and had just woken from a nap. When Billy contacted her she couldn't help but smile. *Good for her and I am really happy she felt comfortable enough to come and talk to you. I think Kingie will be really good for her. Love you Yilly.*

~~~

Once Sandi had left his office Billy looked at the video screen. What he was about to do was likely to upset Satasha but he was done with waiting for her father to deal with their relationship. It had been months since that confrontation and he had refused to contact them. Yes the three of them, Billy, Satasha, and Z'Marl, had met the rest of Satasha's family several times. What Billy didn't approve of was her father essentially disowning her because of their relationship. Billy didn't know if Sholan's had such a thing but it was what it felt like to him and he wasn't happy. Part of that was because it was causing Satasha stress. She was very close to losing her telepathic abilities since she was close to the four month mark of the pregnancy. This needed to be dealt with before then if possible.