Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance (10 page)

“I appreciate your calling me with this, and while I give the rest of my administration an ulcer, do you mind if I ask why you didn’t just take care of it?” the woman asked. Ian could see she was indeed working on getting the ball rolling.

“Normally, I would, but I do not have permission to perform operations, even emergency ones, in your country yet. This is an internal matter for the most part. However, I do have my team on standby in the case of an emergency. After all, it’s easier to beg for forgiveness that it is to ask for permission.”

She actually grinned when he said that. “Six hours you said?”

“Yes, your OHS folks had an alert issued on this ship, but from what we can tell, no one has paid it any heed. They got through the locks without even being boarded,” Ian said.

She shook her head. “I’ll fire the lot of them over this. Will! There you are! We have a nuclear weapon in Libyan hands six hours from arriving at the Port of Duluth. Why wasn’t it stopped at the locks in Michigan?”

Ian couldn’t hear the person she was talking to, but he could tell she wasn’t liking what she was hearing.

“I don’t care who the fuck is to blame for this, we can figure that out later! What I want to know is what are you going to do about it before it puts a very large crater in the heartland?” The President said.

“Madam President, we would be happy to send our surveillance to The Mountain again, if you would like?” Ian offered.

“That could be handy, could you call the Admiral and get it set up?” she asked. She was getting very busy in the few moments since he had called her.

“Certainly! Do you want to hang up so you can kick some more butts?” Ian asked, grinning.

“Actually, no I don’t. I’d like to keep you on the line in the case I need to fix this a different way. If that is alright?" the President asked.

“It would be our pleasure, Madam President,” Ian said. “I will mute the line though, so you don’t have to listen to our side. Our computers will tell us if you need to speak to me,” Ian said.

“Thank you Commander,” the President said.

“Mel, could you get me Admiral Hawkins of USSPACECOM please?” Ian asked his aide again.

“Of course Sir,” she replied.

“At this rate, I’m going to need more monitors!” Ian said under his breath. Chloe heard him though, and chuckled.

“Chloe can you get set up to pass the feeds to The Mountain again?” Ian asked.

“Already working on it, Sir,” she said.

“Admiral Hawkins on the other monitor, Sir,” the Ensign said again.

Ian winked at the ensign who chuckled and turned back to his station.

“What can I do for you, son?” Hawkins asked.

Ian smiled at him. “This is official, Admiral. At the request of your President, we are once again sending you data feeds we are gathering from a situation in the Great Lakes. Your OHS should be calling you for the information.”

“Somehow I doubt that! But, thank you for the data feeds anyway,” Hawkins said.

“Well, the Pres is riding herd on this, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually called this time. She’s pretty pissed off about the whole thing," Ian said.

“Scared I could see, fuckin’ terrorists got us all on edge, but pissed? Why is she pissed?” Hawkins asked.

“From what I can tell because this particular terrorist situation shouldn’t have happened to begin with. No one caught them before they made it to Lake Superior. Now they have five and a half hours before that bomb makes port in Duluth, Minnesota."

“Holy shit! That would do it!” Hawkins replied. “Uh, why didn’t you folks just do your thing?”

Ian chuckled. “Now that we are out of the closet so to speak, we have to play nice. We don’t have permission to perform operations on American soil.”

Hawkins snorted. “I bet that’ll be fixed before the end of the day!”

“Maybe. The thing is, if we handle it, our laws allow us to execute terrorists on site. No trial, no due process, no anything. The exception being that we can interrogate leaders or those that we think might have information before executing them,” Ian explained.

“Not that I don’t agree with you on this, but that isn’t a lot of incentive to get them to talk,” Admiral Hawkins replied.

“They don’t have much choice. We have methods of getting information from someone that are allowed against convicted felons that are to get the death penalty. I’m told it...... damages them. Which is why it is only allowed against already convicted felons, they’re already dead.” Ian explained. “A person convicted of a felony under our laws, has no rights save the right of appeal and then only if they can prove a reason for it. Executions take place late at night, and are televised.”

“Oh, the Liberals would have some serious issues with those laws,” Hawkins replied.

“I know. I don’t think a lot of the countries will allows us free access to operate in their country for that very reason,” Ian said. "I know a lot of them do not believe in, or support the death penalty for capital crimes. Most will refuse extradition even in murder cases unless the sentence of death is remove from the list of possible punishments. By the way, rape is also considered a capital crime and carries the same punishments as murder.”

“What about crimes like negligent homicide? Crimes where someone dies, but not as an intended result?”

“Depends on the crime. A store clerk shot during a robbery is considered murder. A store clerk that has a heart attack during a robbery is not murder. Because the robber did not do anything to aid the person in medical distress, he then becomes a contributor to the person’s death, but not the root cause. The criminal would most likely get a life sentence on a penal colony.”

“So you do have prisons, I was beginning to wonder,” Hawkins asked.

“In point of fact, Admiral, we don’t. That penal colony is usually a functioning mining outpost. Criminals sent there are used as laborers, and the mining is done the hard way. Inmates pay their own way through manual labor,” Ian said. “In a lot of cases, it would actually be kinder to hand down a death sentence. Anything over ten or so years in a mining colony might as well be a death sentence, most people don't survive that long.”

“What about contact with the outside? Do they get visitation or correspondence?” the Admiral asked.

“They are permitted one visit every six months by an advocate, a lawyer. No other outside contact is permitted. They don’t even get television. They work, eat, and sleep. They lose all civil rights when they are convicted, save citizenship. However, capital offenders even lose that." Ian explained. “I’m sorry Admiral, but I need to let you go, the President needs to talk to me again.”

“Okay, thanks for taking the time to talk with me,” Admiral Hawkins said, smiling. “Good luck, Commander.”

“You too, Admiral,” Ian replied and ended the communication. He turned to the Monitor with the President on it, and unmuted it. “You needed to speak to me, Madam President?"

“Commander, I’m sure I’m going to pay for this, but none of these monkeys can do a damn thing about that bomb, other than make sure it detonates. Can you do something about it, without it going off?”

“Probably, but nothing is guaranteed. I do know we can help clean up the mess if it does, but I’m sure we would all like to avoid that,” Ian replied. "Madam President, in order for us to handle this for you, I need for you to officially ask for our assistance in this matter. That way our asses are covered with the UN. At least until a treaty can be put in place to cover things like this.”

“I understand, Commander. But before I do that, I think I should ask why you would need ‘ass covering’ as you put it?” she asked.

Ian briefly and quickly filled her in on their laws regarding terrorists and their activities. She looked a little troubled at the punishments involved, but nodded her head.

“I don’t agree with the punishments, but in this case, I don’t think we have much of a choice. Unless you could try to capture as many as possible alive and hand them over to us?” the President asked.

“Ma’am, several of the other nations already believe we are simply a new, secret branch of the United States Military as it is. Let us do our thing this time, you can stipulate in the treaty that we must hand over any future terrorists if we are needed again. This way, it'll cover both of our asses, and help dissuade a lot of the bull about us working for you,” Ian said. “I know that sounds cold with regards to the assholes on that ship, but I happen to agree with the law when it comes to terrorists caught in the act like these men are.”

The President nodded. “You’re right of course. The fact is, there is no other option for us at this point.” She straightened up and made sure she looked the part of the President. "Commander Williams,  as the President of the United States of America, and, acting on behalf of my fellow citizens, I am hereby authorizing, and charging you with the safe removal of the terrorist threat currently taking place on the Great Lakes. For this action only, I am giving you authorization to use military force inside the borders of the United States for the purpose of removing the, afore mentioned, threat."

Ian nodded. “Madam President, as the Commanding Officer of the Terran Defense Force, I accept your request for assistance and will execute the duties within the terms of this agreement as well as the spirit in which it was given. I understand that this assistance is limited to this mission only, and does not extend to any future situations that may arise as a result of this mission. The parameters of this mission include, and are limited to, the safe removal of the terrorist threat currently taking place on Lake Superior within the borders of the United States. Once this objective has been obtained, all Terran Defense Forces will once again withdraw from United States soil and airspace. Do you agree to those conditions?”

The President nodded. “I do.”

“Then Madam President, with your permission, we will get to work.” Ian turned to the young woman that had been handling his communications with the planet. “Ensign, please transfer the President to one of the upper monitors so she may observe the operation. Major Brighton, please connect me with the Raptor Damocles,” Ian ordered.

“This is the Damocles, go for Guardian,” Cindy’s voice said over the speakers.

“Major Swift, we have received a formal request for assistance from the United States in this matter. Your operational parameters are to remove this threat to the planet by any means. Priority is to keep that bomb from detonating and or arriving in Port of Duluth. Centurion Challenger is at high station. Ghost Squadron is on standby. No other assets are immediately available. Time frame for this operation is immediate/urgent. You are authorized to disengage your master weapons safety. Special Operations Group mandate applies. Tactical command is yours, Major,” Ian said.

“Damocles accepts the mission, Guardian,” Cindy replied.

“Ghost Castle, this is Star Dancer operations. We are issuing a change of mission for the Raptor Damocles. Information packet is in route,” Chloe said on another channel.

“Operations, this is the Ghost Castle. Change of mission request approved. Data packet received. You have operational oversight. Good luck, and good hunting.”

“Thanks, Star Dancer Operations out,” Chloe said.

“Excuse me, Commander, My staff and I are not familiar with your call signs. Is there a way you can tell us who is who here?” the President asked. “And we were wondering, since your ship is so close to the target, why can’t they see it?”

“Madam President, this situation was discovered by a training mission of one of our special operations ships, the Covert Attack Vessel or CAV. We call these ships ‘Raptors’. Special operations doctrine allows that these units are mostly autonomous, with only operational oversight usually after the fact. In this case, the commander of the mission will tell us what she’s going to do once she figures it out. Normally, that wouldn’t happen, since these units are designed to operate alone, far from any support. The name of this ship is the Damocles. It is commanded by Major Cynthia Swift and is composed of five to seven other ‘officers’ that do not carry a formal rank. They can’t be seen because the Covert Assault class of ships are equipped with optical as well as sensor cloaking technology.

“My code name is ‘Guardian’ or ‘Guardian One'. The name of ‘Ghost Castle’ is the Special Operations Training Command. System Tactical Operations Command is currently handled by the Ops team here on the Star Dancer. But it will eventually be moved to a planned orbital facility once we get it built. The tactical name for that while it’s on the ship is the ‘White Queen’. Of course, these names can be, and usually are, changed when handling a planned mission.

“Centurions are basically multi-role, heavy fighters capable of small scale bombing, precision orbital strikes, and long range, deep space patrols. They carry a three man crew.

“Ghost Squadron is a squadron of fighter craft quite similar to your fighter squadrons in structure. Last, but by no means least, I would like to introduce Major Chloe Brighton, my Chief of Operations, or Tactical Officer,” Ian said. "I think that’s everyone.”

When she was introduced, Chloe faced the screen and bowed slightly before turning back to work.

“So this situation was discovered by you completely by luck?” someone in the room with the president asked. Star put the person’s name on the monitor under the image.

“Yes, General Tolmen. The Raptor Damocles was performing a training mission in high orbit when her scanners detected the nuclear material in the bomb. She then proceeded to identify and evaluate the source of the readings. Once identified, we called you folks," Ian explained.

“So, this situation just happened to be discovered by the very soldiers that would be called in to deal with it?” another voice asked. This person Star identified as Director Miguel Stansfield, head of the Office of Homeland Security.

“Actually, Director Stansfield, I would never call a Raptor team to handle any situation on Earth. Mostly because you don’t use a sledgehammer to swat a fly, no matter how deadly that fly may be,” Ian replied.

The man snorted. “You sure have a high opinion of your people!”