Sholan Alliance - AU Bk 04 Ch. 15

Grand Marshall

After the meeting with Ike and the Commander of the Fijishi he was in his office. The orders to investigate everyone who knew had been passed. Now came the important question, what should he do with the stealth station identified. It wasn't part of the North American polity since Ike didn't know anything about it. He doubted it was part of any of the other polities. He eventually decided what he was going to do.

With a grunt, he left his office and headed to the Parliament building. This was going to prove or disprove what he was thinking about how was the leak. If he was right it was the leader of their polity. If not he was going to rethink who it might be. When he eventually made it to her office he was force to wait for some time. She apparently was in some meeting or another and couldn't be disturbed. He pulled his tablet out and after turning the wireless access off started making plans.

When he was finally shown into the office he settled down in a chair the PM waved him to, "Ma'am, I need to report that it appears the salvage ship tried to do something with the probe. It looks like it exploded and destroyed the ship. The patrol boat I sent reported the loss of all the crew and nothing worth recovering. If we could have gotten there sooner we might have managed to keep it from happening."

She did her best to looked shocked by what he was saying. The explosion had been reported to her as well as the recovery of the probe. Hopefully the tech inside would help them with their plans. The station it had been brought to was one of their central locations. It was close to earth so they had access to the newest tech as soon as possible. It was also where the micro-black hole bomb had been created, "Not good Grand Marshall. Not good at all. We needed access to the tech. You said there wasn't anything to be recovered? Dispatch some of our ships to scour the section the ship was in just to verify that." If they could figure out the tech it would help them. Especially with the stealth they assumed the probe had.

"Will do ma'am. I'll cut the orders myself." He stood and left her office. Based on her reactions he was more than positive she was the leak. Now the question was how high up in that fucking criminal enterprise was she? He was going to assume fairly high up.

Once he was back in his office he enabled a special encryption and called Ike. When he was connected, he looked at the man, "Need to talk. Be there tomorrow." He disconnected and after thinking about it headed home.

~~~

Message from Grand Marshall

The short and abrupt message from the Grand Marshall startled him but he went with it. Ike had a good idea what it was about and they were probably going to get in trouble but if it helped them start breaking the organization he didn't care. It was something they really needed a good break in. Having them hovering over their shoulder just added complexity to everything right now. They didn't need a shadow organization breathing down their necks while fighting a battle with aliens out for their blood.

After he thought about it for a while he started working on some plans. The first was Terran only for assaulting the station. The second was with some Sholan support such as the stealth shuttles to carry their troops, and the last for heavy Sholan help.

Before he realized it, his wife had walked in and thumped him with her cane, "We're hungry. Get off your ass and feed us or else." Amanda didn't know what he was working on but it had to be important for him to be this focused. It didn't matter since he needed to eat and sleep unless it was a 'now' issue.

Ike twitched and sighed, "Sorry Amanda, something urgent came up. I was working on some plans. Can't tell you about it. Sorry and I'm hungry myself. Let's collect our companion and get something to eat. I need to get away from this damn computer and relax." He stood and moved around his desk. When he reached his wife, he gave her a good hug and kiss. They stood there for several minutes as he enjoyed knowing she was feeling so much better.

Eventually they left his office and went to Teo's suite. When they walked in she came over and gave both a good hug, "Know you were busy Ike. I could sense it though not why. Food will be here soon. If you need, after we eat, go back and keep working. I want you in our bed tonight but I do understand the needs of your military right now."

Ike leaned against Teo and gave her a good kiss, "It is important but unless I receive a follow up call it can wait until the morning. I do need the sleep so I can focus in the morning." He gave his wife a slight grin, "Might snitch a brownie to help me sleep."

She laughed even as she also leaned against Teo, "I do have a few. Even with the surgery I do ache at times and they do help. The commune has made them with fewer of the good stuff for me. We really should go and visit them one of the days. They have done so much for the women. Not just the brownies but healing crystals, essential oils, and incense. They really do care."

"Wish I could but right now isn't a good time for me. If you and Teo want to go do so. I just can't get away at the moment. Maybe in a week I might be able to." He had a feeling the Grand Marshall was going to discuss a combined attack on the stealth station and he was going to do it. He wanted the people who had ordered the hit on Billy bad enough it wasn't funny. He didn't want the Sholan's involved unless there wasn't a choice. If nothing else if they could follow any escaping ships to their bases that would be enough.

"I'll contact them Ike and schedule a time which all three of us can go out hopefully. Now time for food, maybe a soak in a tub, and then relaxing in bed." She gave him a good kiss and leaned against him, "Teo we do have a good man, don't we? I've loved him for so long and it seems like each day I come to love him even more." Amanda wanted Ike to know that.

Teo had her arms around both, "We do Mandy. Ike is someone worth loving and how I do as well. I think I saw something in him that first night. Love him and you. Can't wait to life bond with both of you." She finally moved back since her assistant brought some food in, "Come, let's eat before we consider a bath and sleeping."

~~~

More flowers

Over the next several weeks Z'Marl had received additional flower arrangements. All were from whoever Anonymous was. It was starting to get somewhat frustrating for all of them. Z'Marl didn't have a problem with getting the flowers or even being invited to spend a night with someone. She knew Billy would understand if she did. What was getting to her was the person sending them not giving a name or even anyway to contact him or her. All the notes were polite and appreciative but that was it. Frankly she was about ready to start sending them back and not accepting them.

Billy was feeling a bit irritated as well. He still wasn't totally comfortable with his ladies seeing others but he didn't stand in their way if they did. It wasn't common but both had enjoyed a night or two with others over the time they had been on Shola. What was irritating him was whoever was sending the flowers was being a coward for not giving his name and or even calling Z'Marl and talk to her. It was making her irritable which was starting to impact on the engine designs they were working on. It had impacted on their last link day as well.

One thing he had learned was even with the link if you had a bad day or week with your Leska it did impact on the link day. Even though you merged into one person the emotions of each impacted on the 'one'. It was one reason he did his best to keep their relationships as good as possible. Right now, Z'Marl was irritated enough it had impacted on the last link day. Both of them had come out of it feeling irritable and tired.

Satasha had given both of them a good hug since she understood how they were feeling. Her abilities had come back since delivery so she could feel what they were, "Hugs and sorry you had a rough link day. Love both of you." *Billy you need to talk to Illyos and Lycos to see if they can find who is sending the flowers. They have the skills to find out.*

He returned the hug and gave her a good kiss, "Thanks love. Time for some coffee and food." *I've been considering it. I'll talk to them today and if we don't get anything more by the end of the week I'll have them see what they can find.* He didn't expect them to have an issue with finding who had been sending the damn things. If they did he would see what else he could do. Vangie might be able to give him some suggestions.

Z'Marl growled before going to get something to drink, "Next set of flowers I'm sending back or I'll throw them at the wall. If he or she is too damn chicken to give me their name or a way to contact them I don't want anything to do with them." She gave a very angry hiss. Being that it impacted on their link day she was even more pissed. Even though she still wasn't comfortable with the link she didn't appreciate it being impacted by whoever this was.

She was angry enough when she picked up the cup her hand tensed and crunched it. Since it was disposable it wasn't designed for heavy handling, "Oh fucking hell, that hurts! She turned and quickly started water flowing over her fur where the hot fluid had splashed. Damn it! Who the fuck is this asshole? I want to know so I can go claw them for the way they are acting." Her actions showed just how frustrated she was.

Billy hurried over and checked on his Leska, "I'm taking you to medical to ensure you weren't burned to badly. Satasha call and let the Embassy know we're going to be late. I'll send to you to let you know how she is doing." He hurried her out of the house and found one of the warriors had pulled a vehicle around, "Thanks." He helped Z'Marl into the aircar and held her as they took off. Now he was going to find out who it was and deal with him or her. He didn't give a shit if it was a male or female, Billy was going to deal with them. It wasn't going to be pretty if he had any say about it.

"We'll be there shortly and I hope the burn is relatively minor." It was the same warrior Vangie's daughter was currently seeing. He had activated an emergency beacon since this was the Ambassador and one of his Triad partners. They were quickly met by a police escort and after a brief conversation they were shown to the telepath medical center.

Billy helped Z'Marl out once they had landed and had an arm around her when he showed her in. He could feel the pain in her hand from the hot drink. As of now he was beyond furious and whoever had upset his Leska was going down and hard. He didn't care who it was, they were going to be going down.

Almost before they walked in there was medical staff waiting for them. The police had called ahead and ensured they knew an injured Leska was coming in. Both Billy and Z'Marl were quickly shown to a room and a doctor started looking at the burn. He gave her an injection for pain since Billy was starting to look pale, "Give me a few minutes to look at your burn and see how bad it is."

He carefully moved her fur out of the way as he was examining her burn. It took only a few minutes before he finally looked up, "I know it's hurting but this is mostly a first degree burn with one or two spots which might be second degree. I'm going to use a spray on it to help it heal. You need to come back each morning for the next few days. If you can take the next day or two off it would be a good idea. If not avoid using your hand." He worked a spray into her fur before carefully dressing it.

"I'll ensure my Leska avoids using her hand for a few days. Thank you for the quick service doctor." He knew the doctor was probably sensing his burning anger at what happened. He was going to find out who was doing this and they were going to pay. This was his Leska who was being stalked and it wasn't going to be nice when he dealt with the person.

~~~

Dealing with the stealth station

The Grand Marshall decided to fly down and talk to Ike and see what they could do. He wanted to keep this on the low down. They needed the probe but they could also use the information on the Organization. Other than taking out the stealth station he also wanted to know who was the leak in his government. He knew who he thought it was but he couldn't do anything until he had some proof. For now, getting that probe back was what was most important. When his shuttle finally landed, he made his way to the base the Sholan's were at he hoped it wouldn't be hard to get on. When he approached the gate, he pulled out his identification, "I'm the Grand Marshall of the European Union and I need to talk to Ambassador Ikarius Demopolus. Please contact him and verify what I'm saying.

The Swiss guard carefully reviewed the identification and it appeared to be real. Just to ensure it was he ran it through a scanner in the guard house which indicated it was real. Once it had cleared the scanner he called the Barque and briefly spoke to the Admiral. Ike checked the image he was sent and told the guard to send the Grand Marshall to the Barque and he would ensure he was taken care of.

The guard called for someone to show him to the Barque, "Someone will be waiting at the Barque to show you to the Admiral. Have a good one sir." He watched them head in.

It didn't take long to make it to the ship and was greeted by a Sholan Warrior, "Afternoon Grand Marshall Meyer. Come with me and I'll take you to the Admiral's office." He saluted the man with the arm across the chest and fist pressed against his chest. Once the Grand Marshall gave him a return salute he turned and escorted him onto the ship.

Alaric couldn't help but look around the ship as they were walking in. It was vastly different than any Terran ship he had been on. It wasn't just the colors of the walls but the shape and style of the corridors, the tech which was showing in the p-ways. When they arrived at a door it quickly slid opened and the Warrior waved him in. Alaric walked into the room and recognized the Admiral. He was tall, burly, and a very recognizable beard. Even now it seemed to bristle and look threatening, "Afternoon Admiral, Thanks for taking the time to see me."

Ike snorted, "Oh please Alaric, give me a break. The senior military officer for the EU comes to visit? What do you expect me to do? Tell you to come back tomorrow or the day after? So what can I do for you? Are you here to read me into what the fuck is going on?"

Alaric returned the snort, "Goodness, you would go over badly with some of the people I have to deal with." He flashed him a grin, "I am. What you need to know about..." He handed over a folio with had all the information Ike was going to need. Once he was done talking he finally finished, "So basically the probe has been taken into a stealth station. I feel we need to deal with the station as soon as possible. My question is how do we deal with it? I have troops I can call on but have a feeling we need more. Can't really say why but I have a feeling we need a heavy marine or army force to deal with this. Overwhelming force to take it over. Hit the place from all angles and swamp it with troops before they have a chance to react."

Ike leaned back slightly in his chair and contemplated what Alaric had said. He ran through his options and to be honest he had to agree. What was going to be an issue was getting the troops. If he hit his chair of command it was very possible someone might be a member or connected to the Organization. If so it would cause problems, "I'm going to think about this. Technically I need to go up the chain of command with this. I'm not comfortable with this since it is very possible someone is part of the Organization. I don't want to give them any indication we know about this place. If it is a base which belongs to one of the hegemony's or polities then it isn't nearly as much of an issue. If they are hiding a stealth base with the probe and we take it out there isn't much they can really say." He turned to the credenza next to him and poured two cups of coffee. After handing one cup over he scratched his beard, "How do you want to do this?"

After taking the cup Alaric took a sip and it was damn good, "To be honest what I want is to get a number of troops we trust and hit fast and hard. The station is of a decent size and at a guess there is about 300 people or so on the station. How many are troops and how many are scientists I don't have the faintest idea. I wish we could borrow several of the Sholan stealth shuttles since they have far better stealth than we do. With their help, we could get much closer and take over much quicker."

Ike leaned back further and kept scratching his beard as he was doing some thinking. He had access to some troops he could call on since they had been assigned to the Swiss as part of the security forces. He was in charge of them but there weren't a massive number, "I have some troops I can call on but there are only about thirty. If this goes wrong I'll take responsibility for it. That is the best I can do. As far as asking for help from the Sholan's? I have a feeling we'll need to go to the ship and talk to the commander. How many troops can you call on?"

Thirty was actually a good number since they would be in heavy armor and military weapons, "I am in charge of the military so I can call on how ever many I wish. To be honest I wouldn't consider maybe another fifty or so. Dropping seventy troops in heavy armor would, or should be more than enough to take over the station. If we can get a few patrol ships to ensure nobody escapes that would be a good thing. If we do this how soon might you be able to arrange your troops?"

Ike tugged on his beard, "Depending on what I need to deal with, two days to a week. I know we need this sooner than later." He turned to his system and dialed the Fijishi. When he was finally connected, he asked for the Commander. Once connected he smiled at the man, "I need transport up there so Alaric and I can talk to you. Can you send a shuttle down as soon as possible? It is related to a probing issue."

The Commander flicked an ear, "Give me an hour and a shuttle will be down there Admiral. We'll talk later. Will your life mate and companion be coming?"

Ike shook his head, "No, this is a military issue. It can't involve them. We'll be ready when the shuttle arrives." They needed to hop on this as fast as possible. Once taken down Ike would deal with the repercussions. He disconnected and waved Alaric to follow him, "I need to talk to my wife and companion."

Alaric gave him a slight smile, "I'd be interested in meeting both of them. Lead on and I'll keep my mouth quiet." It sounded a bit odd putting it that way but English was his second language.

Ike grinned and headed to Teo's office. He knew his wife was there since she had a small portion of Teo's office to take care of anything related to the five women. Even though Crystal had gone to Shola well before the other four she was considered part of the group. When they walked in he smiled at her assistant, "Need to talk to Teo and Amanda as soon as possible."

"Go in Admiral, nobody is with them at the moment. If you need anything let me know." He opened the door and watched the two humans go in.

Ike walked in and gave both women a good hug and kiss before they could bother trying to stand, "This is Grand Marshall Alaric Meyer and we need to talk to the Commander on the Fijishi. Can't tell you why but it is important. We are going to be flying up shortly but I'm not sure when we'll be back."

Alaric gave the two women a pleasant smile, "It is nice to finally meet you Lady Amanda. I've heard a great deal about you and your efforts for the women rescued. It is a pleasure to meet you as well Ambassador Teolura. I hope we can talk later but this is very important and we need to talk to the Commander."