Sholan Alliance - AU Bk 04 Ch. 03

If they had other systems, it was very possible they be called to come to reinforce their system. It was obviously their central system and common sense said to with draw to this system. The civilians didn't matter on colony worlds. They could quickly be replaced. If the central world was lost it would mean the end of their people. They needed to attack and now, not wait and scout. With a grunt of annoyance, he tossed back the last of his drink and headed to bed.

He had tried to convince the Emperor to change the plans but it hadn't worked. He knew if he pushed it any further he would be visiting the Priests and there would be a new General assigned. That was something he definitely didn't want to consider. By the shards of the first shell he was tired of pandering to the egocentric male. If he thought he could do it, he would off him and take over. Put a real Emperor on the throne. It wouldn't be him since he enjoyed being alive. Whoever ended up on the throne probably wouldn't last very long. It was better to be the king maker than the king.

The fleet was going to the opposite side of the system they had found the new enemies in. At least it would give them greater coverage to find the systems they need to. It also would spread them out thinner. It would give a greater chance of one of their small ships being encountered and discovered. He finally rolled over and managed to fall asleep.

~~~

Dearborn's 2

The Dearborn's were not quite ready for what had happened. Much of what had happened with Crystal had been her mother's fault due to Mrs. Dearborn's beliefs. Since Mrs. Dearborn had turned her back on Crystal things had been badly strained at home and frankly he had been getting ready to wash his hands of his damn wife. He looked at the Sholan and paled at the expression on his face. Even though he was alien the look of absolute disgust and derision was obvious. Brody Dearborn turned to his soon to be ex-wife. "You created this fucked up mess and you fucking deal with it. You made the choice and I am not going to let it impact on what is right." He turned back to the Sholan. "She will deal with this since it was her choice. I wash my hands of my soon to be ex-wife." He turned and walked away.

Delilah's jaw dropped when her husband turned and walked away. She was honestly shocked since she had thought he had supported her decision. They had discussed it and after she had made her decision clear, he had acquiesced to her feelings. It only took her a moment or two before her certitude came back and she turned and glared at the Sholan animal thing. She was not going to put up with this. "How dare you say that we washed our hands of her?" Delilah was not going to let some cat animal thing try and shame her. "They wouldn't let us bring her back for proper treatment. We want our child back!"

Vangie watched her life mate turn away and had to admit he was somewhat surprised. When the short round female started speaking again he turned back to her. By the time she was done speaking it was a struggle to keep his face composed. To be honest he wanted to slap the shit out of her. The biggest reason he didn't do anything was chances were if he smacked her he would need to undergo decontamination which really sucked. "How dare I? Do you happen to remember saying this when we contacted you about your former daughter?" He activated a recording device which showed a view of a terminal screen.

On the image was the woman, without anyone else. Her face was looking utterly revolted and disgusted as she spoke. The tone was filled with condemnation and derision. "I have no daughter named Crystal. If I had she would have never been so selfish as to force us to let her go on that trip, it wouldn't have happened. No daughter of mine would allow herself to be used in such a way so go away. Do what you wish with this child named Crystal." The connection was terminated from her end.

"This is a legal recording since the Sholan Ambassador had contacted you about Crystal Dearborn. Be glad Yilly Madlax wasn't around and wasn't an ambassador. Now sign the documents or the Terran Ambassador to Shola will be asking questions. He was not amused and is going to be wanting answers. If you do not sign the documents, there is going to be a request for criminal punishment. It would be in your best interests to just sign the documents and go away." Now Vangie's voice was cold and filled with a rumbling anger.

Delilah's face hardened. She jerked the board from the Sholan animal and scratched out her signature. "Even though I don't have such a daughter here, now go away." She started to shut the door when her husband came back.

"Get out of the way Delilah, we are leaving and going to my parents' house. Our other two children are coming with since you are not worth being anything but their biological donor. The divorce papers will be delivered tomorrow as well as the papers requesting custody of our children." He shoved past her. "Warrior this was not by my choice and if you wouldn't mind escorting us away from here I will explain why." His former wife wasn't going to hold this over his head anymore. He was done with bowing down to her.

Vangie was actually caught flat footed at that and glanced at Ike. Ikarius came forward. "Mr. Dearborn I can escort you from here but simply due to your request. Captain Ashkeron is simply fulfilling Ambassador Madlax's orders. Beyond that he doesn't have any authority. If you and your children will come with me I will bring you to somewhere you can get a lift to where you wish."

Mr. Dearborn and the two younger children from the marriage walked out of the house. Mrs. Dearborn's mouth was flapping in indignation and shock. She couldn't believe her husband would do this to her. They had met at the same church, they had worshiped at the same services and he was doing this? How dare he! As they were walking away she started squawking in righteousness, "How dare you? I will get our children back and I will have custody of them. I can't believe you are turning your back on our beliefs and our church! You will hear from me about this." She slammed the door shut even before anyone had gone very far.

Mr. Dearborn gave Ike a worried look, "Admiral believe me what happened wasn't my choice and I will talk to you later. Can you please take us somewhere we can talk?" He and his other two children had a bag each and not much else.

Ike glanced at the three Dearborn's and gave them a slight nod, "Come with us and depending what you have to say we will deal with this issue." He could tell the two children were scared and looking between their father and the aliens, "We will take care of you and get you in contact with Crystal. Billy, the Ambassador has been taking care of her and she is doing better."

Vangie almost lashed out at the woman but managed not to. Even he could sense that she was a narrow-minded person and even on Shola they had that type. Before he moved away from the female he snarled, "We are leaving and thank you for your help with this issue." He turned and stalked away from the house. Even as he was turning away he watched the Admiral leading the three onto the Sholan craft. With a rather grin smile he and his escort of warriors followed and climbed aboard the vehicle as well.

As Vangie turned and stalked back to the shuttle his fury was obvious. His ears were laid close against his head and his tail was lashing back and forth. The warriors who had followed him to the house formed up behind him and stalked back with him. They were no more pleased than he had been. Even though they didn't know Crystal, they were from the Barque, they had seen enough. This was most definitely going to end up being the talk of the ship when they got back.

Once Vangie stomped on board the shuttle he found Ike talking to Mr. Dearborn, "We can't take you back to Switzerland but we can take you and drop you off at a hotel or a relative's house. Since you are citizens of the U.S. coalition there are miles of red tape I would have to destroy. Before we do that if you would like to record a message for Crystal I will have it transmitted to Ambassador Madlax. I don't know when he will receive it but I will ensure it is sent."

Vangie chose not to get involved in that conversation since it was a Terran issue. It did touch on Crystal but it was something above his level. He would shoot Kingie a message before leaving just to catch him up on the entire mess. Somehow Vangie knew this had been a huge setup by Billy and aimed directly at the Dearborn's. He hoped it would help Crystal start to deal with what her mother, based on what he had seen, had done.

Mr. Dearborn had rather figured that. He had mostly jumped at the chance to get away from his wife. When they had originally married, she had been a much nicer and relaxed person. Once her older sister had left the church something had changed and his wife had started becoming ultra-religious and highly reactive. Anything which didn't match her slowly narrowing beliefs was bad, wrong, or evil, "I understand and a hotel would be fine for now. I can make it from there. Thank you Admiral."

Ike directed the vehicles to take off before leading Mr. Dearborn to a private console to make a recording. He knew that Billy was going to think long and hard before allowing Crystal to see the recording. It was possible he might have it edited as well based on what her therapists had to say.

Vangie had since sat down and was watching what was going on. As he was watching Crystal's father record the message he felt a slight tug on one sleeve. When he looked down it was a younger girl, maybe ten or so and she was obviously upset, "What can I do for you Chiya? My name is Vangie."

She sniffed, "Do you know my sister? Do you know how she is doing?" A tear trickled down one cheek as she was talking. It was obvious she was very upset.

He lifted a hand and caught the tear in his fur, "I do Chiya. Crystal is being watched by one of my warriors. His name is Kingie and she is living at his parent's house as she is being helped. She is doing reasonably well. Kingie's family has taken her in as a sort of sister of Kingie's. His little sister Amahs has taken to her and keeps her active. Would you like to record a message as well? After your father is done doing his message I can have the Admiral help you and your brother record one as well. Would you like that?"

She almost crawled in his lap and leaned against him, "I would. When you see her say hi for me." She pulled out a small necklace and handed it to him, "Give this to her for me also. She gave it to me before she left and I want her to know I love her."

He took the necklace and tucked it into a pocket, "Can do Chiya." He smiled slightly as he pulled out one of the badges they had created for Crystal, "This is a patch we had made before we left for Shola. Crystal is our unit mascot. I want you to have this." He handed it to her and one to her brother when he came over. He gave the boy a good smile as they started talking until her father was done, "Ike, these two would like to record something as well. Go you two, Ike will help you record something."

He urged them towards Ike and smiled when their father came and collected them before taking them over to the console so they could record something. When the girl was talking she held the patch up and mentioned she had gotten to meet a real Sholan.

Amanda leaned over and patted Vangie's arm, "That was a good thing you did for them. You are a good young warrior." She settled back in her seat and watched her husband helping the children. That was one thing they had never been able to do, have children. The damage had been too bad to her body.

Once they dropped the three off and the shuttle took off again Ike turned to Kingie, "It might be a very good idea for you to take off as soon as we arrive. Don't take any time and simply leave. If you don't I have a feeling Ambassador Teolura might have a few choice words for you and Billy. I really don't feel like having to stand there and listen to her thoughts on this little charade. I know Billy and I know he did this just to grind people's noses in how not to irritate him."

Vangie grunted and let out a slightly disgruntled hiss, "I had a feeling he was contemplating something evil but I also know he set this up so everyone could have plausible deniability. I feel used and I am going to give him a very disrespectful hiss when I get back to Shola." Now that he was starting to work his anger off a slightly malicious smile crossed his face. That had felt damn good to stick it to that woman, "I will let you take care of the message to Billy about the resolution." He could send a message while in transit as well.

~~~

Billy threatens a guild master

Billy was informed that Kingie and Crystal were going to take Satasha home. She was getting tired and he didn't blame her at all. For a brief moment, he almost used it as an excuse for him to leave as well. Instead he excused himself from the person he was currently talking to and headed towards Satasha, "Hey love, I will be home eventually, go and relax and don't try and wait up for me." He gave her a light kiss and hug before handing her over to the two, "Kingie if you have a minute I need to speak to you."

He led Kingie off to one side and gave him a slight smile, "I just wanted to let you know there is a room for the two of you at the embassy house as well. With the hour's you occasionally put in, I am sure it would be more convenient." Billy was pretty sure that when Crystal decided she was ready for the next step she wouldn't want to make it at Kingies house, "Thank you for taking care of Satasha."

Before Kingie could do or say anything Billy stepped away and found Z'Marl and tucked an arm through one of hers, "Good evening Guild Master, I hope my triad partner kept you occupied while I took care of my Leska."

Z'Marl wanted to hiss at the Guild Master since he had been making a suggestion of spending time with him. There was nothing wrong with that but she simply wasn't interested in him and he hadn't been taking the hint, *Thank Vartra you rescued me or I might have clawed someone. He wasn't taking no for an answer.* "Satasha decided it was time to go and relax? Good for her, I wish we could have done this party sooner for her sake."

Billy had been sensing Z'Marl's discomfort which was why he had come over, *Well I suppose I could break out my shotgun if you want.* "I should have asked Satasha to remain at home but she probably would have clawed me for suggesting that." He turned to the Guild Master, "If you will excuse us I see my secretary indicating I have a call I can't avoid."

She couldn't help but flick her tail in amusement at Billy's suggestion, *I don't think that will be needed Yilly.* "Sandi is and I am sure she would only allow the most critical of calls through right now." She gave the Guild Master a polite nod, "If you will excuse us?" She turned and walked off with Billy. As they walked away she could feel the annoyance from the Guild Master.

Billy paused for a moment and leaned towards the Guild Master as if to speak privately to him, "If you harass my third like that again and refuse to take no, I will invite you to the challenge circle. You will not win and I will go home with a tail or ears. I am not a nice person and I do not approve of people fucking with my family. Have a nice evening and goodbye." It was a very quiet murmur Billy used before turning away and slightly adjusting his short sword as if it needed it.

Z'Marl couldn't contain both her shock and approval of what Billy had whispered to the male. Though she didn't say anything it was obvious she was more than pleased with his protecting her. It didn't surprise her though the offer of a challenge did.

The Guild Master, for the moment, took the hint and quietly made his way out of the party. Tomorrow he was going to consider the challenge and snarl at the short flat faced being. How he could have attracted two such lovely women boggled his mind. Depending on what he found he might just challenge the male. It didn't matter if he was the Ambassador, he was just a jumped-up alien from a back-water world who still fought wars.