Tactical Officer, naval position in charge of tactics
TGA
Terran Union Governmental Authority
TUSN
Terran Union Space Navy
UDC
Union Diplomatic Corps, the TGA interplanetary diplomatic corps
VSC
Veterans Security Company, a personal security company that Liea uses
There are now a number of navy and other ships, that are directly involved in this story. It might be difficult to track all of them, so here is a list of ships important to the story in order of their appearance:
RH 149
Rockhound 149, ore survey vessel. Raymond Clark's mining vessel in which he found his claim and evidence of aliens. Rockhounds can literally push one kilometer of rock. First seen in the prologue.
CPV Liramor One
Ex Tung Class corporate yacht. Principal corporate yacht of Liramor Holdings. First seen in Chapter One.
NS Wimple
Fairling Class Frigate, Capt. Bouyé Whatt commanding. Support ship for the Piscium Scientific Investigation Team. First ship in Cmdre. Marsh's command. First seen in Chapter Two.
NS Dewfall
Burgan Class Battle Cruiser, Capt. Steven Pickering commanding. Often used by FAdm. Thenton or the Sector Forty-Two JAG for transport. First seen in Chapter Four.
NS Kindalla
Fairling Class Frigate, Capt. Liana Dostier commanding. Second ship in Marsh's command. Dedicated to Piscium system security. First seen in Chapter Five.
NS Kologn
Fairling Class Frigate, Capt. Cèleste Dauphine commanding. Third ship in Marsh's command, dedicated to Piscium system security. First seen in Chapter Seven.
NS Claridge
Fairling Class Frigate, Capt. Richard Dent commanding. Fourth ship in Marsh's command, dedicated to Piscium system security. First seen in Chapter Seven.
SPV Katran
Luxury Passenger Ship. She is sent to Liramor-23 by the President of the Union to retrieve former slaves. Unfortunately, she also carried Senator Andjuran to Liramor-23. First seen in Chapter Eight.
NS Korman
Korman Class Interdiction Ship. A large and formidable interdiction ship designed to lay siege to planetary systems. She was built late in the war and never saw action. She was sold to Raymond and Liea as a private yacht with a difference. First seen in Chapter eight.
PV The Princess
Princess Class private yacht owned by Annette Liramor. Small yacht designed around the old diplomat runabout ships. Capable of planetfall and huge bounds. First of her class. Is the smallest of the Princess Class, subsequent ships of the class being built to slightly larger dimensions. A gift from Liea Samson. First seen in Chapter Nine.
PV The Wanderer
Wanderer Class private yacht. Ex Korman Class interdiction ship. Private yacht visibly owned by Raymond Clark and Liea Samson but in reality, partially owned, maintained, and controlled by the TUSN. First seen in Chapter Nine.
PV Delilah
Princess Class private yacht owned by Liea Samson. She is the second ship of the class and sets the pattern for subsequent ships of the class. The name is derived from the historical story 'Samson and Delilah', wherever Delilah is, Samson will also be. First seen in Chapter Ten.
PV The Valour
Princess Class private yacht owned by Fiona Marsh. The name drives from Marsh's highest award to date, the Civilian Cross of Valour. A gift from Liea Samson. First seen in Chapter Ten.
PV The Valiant
Princess Class private yacht owned by Raymond Clark. The name is derived from his actions in combat. Clark is one of the most decorated Navy Officers of the Terran Unification War. First seen in Chapter Ten.
There is little attempt to explain the back story, so it is necessary to read previous chapters to fully understand where we are.
As before, I claim sole responsibility for the story line. This story is a fantasy, with no basis in reality. Any similarity that you may perceive to current events, people, or situations real or imaginary is completely unintended. Look no further than the story line for its intent and purpose.
A big shout out to SaddleRidder for all the help she has provided in editing. If you find any errors still left in this chapter, they are mine.
Please rate and comment. But keep your comments respectful. If you rant and rave or are disrespectful in your commentary, it will be deleted.
'Nuff said...enjoy.
VIP Suites, Liramor-23 Mining Platform, Piscium System, 106 Light Years from Terra
Cynthia Stewart was ecstatic. She had received an e-mail from Peter Broaden, Director for Interplanetary News Services on Planet Hanover, indicating that her story about the new Princess Class ships was going Union wide!
He had forwarded her request about information on the news suppression of the Battle of Liramor-23, to the Terran branch of the service for more information on the reasons for the suppression of the story by the Senate.
Peter wanted an outline of how she would present the pirate battle story, how many interviews she had in her queue and what kind of follow-on stories she might have.
Cynthia smiled. She had most of that completed now, though she was still working on getting interviews from actual pirates. The naval trials, because they were Court Martials, were a matter of public record, which meant she could get access to the respective trials of those with whom she could get permission to interview.
She had completed the editing of the interviews of Commodore Marsh, and two of her ship's captains. Their descriptions of the battle, the platform holding the line while seven navy ships swooped in to decimate the pirates, making it most thrilling but it seemed a little pat to her.
Cynthia suspected there was more to the story than what was being discussed, however, Capt. Noor had taken her aside and had admonished her that the complete capabilities of Liramor-23 had to be kept secret in case another such attack occurred.
Noor had insisted on Cynthia's cooperation in this regard as, she explained, Cynthia might still be on the platform during the next attack and might appreciate if the entire list of the platform's capabilities was
not
in enemy hands.
Put in that context, Cynthia had readily agreed to keep some of the information about what she had learned out of her interviews, the release of said information meaning the loss of her press accreditation for her to Liramor-23 helped in her decision making.
According to Noor, that the platform had 'a few' mines was acceptable. That the Rockhounds had ripped down the sides of pirate vessels was acceptable. However, information on the total number of mines available, where the mines were situated, that the Rockhounds had the ability to fire rockets, and how the platform was actually armed, were subjects that Capt. Noor wanted to keep from being published. Since it didn't do anything to harm her interviews, and actually made the Rockhound pilots look even more heroic, Cynthia readily agreed.
She had hours worth of edited interviews and news clips ready to go pending confirmation on the legality of the suppression of the story. One piece of related news that she had discovered was that the story was well known on Liramor Prime. Ergo, the source of the suppression was on Terra. She sent that back to Peter Broaden, along with several introductory clips for her stories, just in case they decided to publish.
Interplanetary News Services, Planet Hanover, Karen System, Seventy Light Years from Terra
Peter Broaden opened the e-mail from Liramor-23 with high expectations. He was not disappointed.
Cynthia Stewart had sent him a numbered list of interviews with the subject lines of each, allowing him to easily pick and chose which interviews to work with. Included were interviews with men and women who had won medals for bravery during the battle, interviews with naval captains involved in the battle, and imagery of the after math of the battle.
There was an indication of up to sixteen hours of edited interviews, exposés, news articles, broadcast specials, and documentary pieces that had not been included with this e-mail package.
That woman knows how to entice the viewers, especially senior staff,
Peter thought to himself.
There was also an indication of an interview or interviews being sought with Adm. James Hannison, the Navy JAG, reference the Court Martials of the pirates, as the great majority of pirates were ex CP military personnel.
Their reporter was also attempting to get permission from the JAG to interview some of the pirates that had already been through Court Martial.
That could be an interesting side note,
Peter thought.
There were two clips that had no explanation with them. Peter called up one of the clips. Cynthia Stewart was sitting in a medical bay talking with one of the nurses from Liramor-23. It covered the aftermath of the pirate battle and what was discovered on the pirate cargo vessels. Slaves...free citizens of the Union, held as slaves.
The discussion covered how those slaves, the great majority of them women, had been used by the pirates. Imagery showed the women in bare feet, wrapped in blankets, their faces edited out, coming off the shuttles onto the platform. They watched as the women broke down and cried as they finally understood that in fact, they truly were free.
Nurses, doctors, female miners, all came together to hug and to help the women struggling to find acceptance and understanding that this was real, that they were indeed free, that soon they could go home.
The image returned to the medical bay were the discussion on what had happened to the former slaves was graphic and direct. Images of the slaves taken by the medical staff, showed the extensive bruising on their bodies, and the chaffing from shackles on their wrists and ankles. All had been repeatedly raped, all had been physically and mentally abused, many were on the verge of mental collapse. The staff had worked hard to reach the women, to bring them back to the world of the living, to show they were loved, needed, and wanted.
Many of the nurses, doctors, and miners, male and female, proudly showed the letters of appreciation that the freed citizens had left behind. Though short and unadorned, the clip was powerful in its simplicity. It needed no touch up to make its impact felt.
Peter called the station's producer Frank Cassie to his office. Together, they reviewed that one clip. There was a long silence after.
Peter opened the other clip and saw what looked like a maintenance bay that had been badly burned and was under repair. Peter recognized the recording style of Cynthia Stewart, when suddenly the view shifted to a rather amateurish holo-image of what appeared to be the same bay with people desperately fighting a large fire, while others were carrying bodies into an airlock.
The scene shifted, showing a lone figure working at the bay door controls while the fire raged uncontrolled. They watched the success of the bay doors being forced open by a Rockhound, and the smaller ships coming into the bay to scoop up burning material and dumping it out into space. The long walk of the lone figure back to the airlock.
They witnessed as an exhausted Fiona Marsh, her face burned red by the heat of the fire, was helped out of her environmental suit, and placed on an anti-grav chair. They saw miners silently filling either side of the corridor as Fiona was slowly guided to the platform's hospital, all of them reaching out to touch her, to thank her, to wish her a good recovery.
Many reporters would have overdubbed it, made comments about all that was seen, but once again, this was simple, powerful work. No embellishments were needed, nor wanted. Cynthia knew her stuff.
Frank suddenly gave Peter a strange look. "Do you see what she's doing?" he asked of Peter.
"Presentation packaging?" Peter asked.
"Yea, and she's good at it," Frank agreed.
"Lead with the knife," Peter started.
"Show them the stun rifle," Frank continued.
"Finish them with the pulse cannon," Peter finished with a humorless laugh.
Frank looked at Peter rather curiously. "You don't get it do you?" he suddenly asked of Peter.
Peter looked at his boss, somewhat at a loss. Frank had seen something, Peter was sure, but he couldn't see it.
"The story on the new ship, that was the knife," Frank told him, letting him off the hook.
"Shit!" Peter blurted out. "She's sitting on a bigger story!"
"Yea, but what's bigger than a battle with pirates and freed citizen slaves?" Frank asked the obvious question.
Conference room One, Liramor-23, Piscium System
Fiona was listening to Capt. Raymond Clark, explaining his former duties to Capt. Henadi Noor. She hadn't really appreciated the scope of the task that Raymond had taken on when he had accepted the position of Civilian Liaison Officer. She suddenly had a much clearer idea of what the strengths and pitfalls of the position entailed. It made her realize just how much she still had to learn about being a commodore. She promised herself to listen carefully in future to all that her aide, her liaison officer, and her captains had to say.
Keeping an ear to the conversation between Noor and Clark, she focused more on her new Aide-de-camp, Cdr. Beverly Davis. Davis was as tall as Fiona herself, but where Fiona was brunette, Beverly was blonde.
