All That Glitters

All That Glitters -- Ch 21

The Wanderer wanders.

The partners show off their new toy on the circuit.

© bigtddybr October 2020. This series 'All That glitters' cannot be transferred to any other site besides Literotica.com without the prior authorizations in writing from the author and bigtddybr must be credited for this work.

By popular request, the somewhat oversized glossary has been removed and is incorporated in a new chapter called

'All That Glitters: Notes'

, which will periodically be resubmitted for publication as new items are included.

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. With her guidance, I'm making fewer and fewer errors, but she still finds them. 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.

Vilumas City, Liramor Prime, Liramor System, Thirty Light Years from Terra

'Marc Ouellette' sat in his apartment and went over the latest hits he had received from the Dark Web server he was monitoring. He had placed a device within the server to record everything that happened on the server each day. At the end of his workday, he would come back to his apartment and review what the device recorded.

He worked hard to cover his tracks, using a companion booster relay to send the items from his recording device. This meant that he didn't have to use the internet connection to transmit the recordings, lessening the chances of being discovered, his apartment being well within the range of the booster. From that list, he could select sites to visit on the Dark Web. He was currently attempting access to a highly secure site that he suspected was another server for the Dark Web. It made sense that there was more than one backup for the web. He had found one server node and two sites that he suspected were server nodes, but currently, he was working a site that he suspected was the main controller of the Dark Web.

Luc Branchette was using a 'burner' laptop in case someone was able to follow his trail back through the Dark Web. There was no way that he would use his, or anyone else's comp unit. Careful as he may be, those who used the Dark Web were the definition of paranoids. They never let up on tracking and tracing new, anonymous, or anomalous inquiries.

Luc had learned from their paranoia. His actual location was many kilometers from the listed location, again using a booster to send signals back and forth. He bounced his queries around the globe several times before bringing them into his burner. Even so, he had learned paranoia from the best. He had placed several cut-outs along his trail that would cause his pursuers to stop momentarily, hopefully long enough for him to see them coming and close his links.

Luc had been lucky, so far, he had not had anyone determined to trace him back past the cut-outs. That luck suddenly changed when one, then two, then a third cut-out sent out a general distress signal.

Luc immediately triggered his cut-outs and shut down the specialized device he was using. He opened his comp and sent out a simple signal. Those who were listening for it, acted immediately.

IPPF HQ, Liramor City, Liramor Prime

Chief Superintendent Maria Sanger, Director of Operations for IPPF on Liramor Prime, moved swiftly down the hall to her office. She had been informed of the signal as soon as it was detected.

"Is everything ready?" she asked of her aide, Special Agent Phillip Beausoleil.

"Oui, Mme. Director," Phillip replied formerly.

"Warrants?" Sanger asked.

"Our lawyers in Vilumas City already have the warrants. We are still waiting for the warrants for the site here in the Curselette Suburb, and in other suburbs of the capital," Phillip informed her. "We should have a response from the judge momentarily. We already have the warrants for the Phiata family estates."

"As soon as we have all the warrants we move," Sanger ordered, "I don't want anyone at those sites to be aware that we are coming.

"What is happening with the owner's of 1175 rue d'Archambeau?" Sanger asked.

"They are out at theater tonight," Phillip said. "With luck, they will not be home until we have breached their security."

"Let them enjoy the show," Sanger ordered, with a grin. "It could be awhile until they go to the theater again.

"Activity at the site?" Sanger asked.

"They have their security on site of course, but otherwise there is no activity," Phillip stated. "That might change as soon as one of our warrants becomes active."

Phillip's comp buzzed and he opened the link.

"We have all the warrants and are on our way back to the staging site," came the voice.

Phillip acknowledged the message and the pair moved quickly to the staging site.

Sanger stood on a small dais to address the teams.

"Tonight, we are acting on warrants against several sites in and around the capital, and in Vilumas City on the opposite side of the globe," Sanger began. "Once we leave this location, there will be no comms until we have breached each site and then only to acknowledge that you have breached each site. To this end, your personal comps have been locked out of any but official channels until tomorrow.

"Each of the teams will be given a different warrant and location. Some of you will be acting against known criminal families. You can expect that they will not go down willingly. However, these are listed as 'white collar' criminals, so I expect no harsh actions from you unless those we are engaging bring out weapons. If that happens, the gloves are off. I do not want to see any of our people injured or killed. Nor do I want to have the press, or others, speculating about 'unexplained' injuries or deaths in police custody. Act accordingly. Make sure your personal cams are all activated before you hit the sites. I will personally hang out to dry any of you that go in without an active cam. You have been warned."

Just then, the team with the warrants arrived. Sanger handed them out to the team leads and gave the order to activate them.

The press would not be notified until early in the morning. They would be upset, but IPPF had found that many of the press were in the back pockets of the criminal organizations. Better to bring them in after the fact, when they couldn't inform those they were beholding to.

NS Dewfall, Liramor-23 Parking Orbit, Piscium System, 106 Light Years from Terra

A shackled Philaman Phargas was forcefully seated in front of Adm. Rolland Heist. His interrogation had turned up something unusual, and his interrogator insisted that the chief of Naval Intelligence should hear this from Phargas' own lips.

"Explain," Heist ordered of the Interrogator.

"This is Mr. Philaman Phargas, sir," the Interrogator began. "He was taken from the Pollard, but he is not a member of the crew, even though he was dressed in crew coveralls."

"Why have you been brought before me, Mr. Phargas, in such an undignified manner," Heist demanded of the prisoner.

"I am a special advisor to Adm. Kittering, or I was," Phargas stated.

"Define 'special adviser', Mr. Phargas," Heist insisted.

"I'm a slaver, sir. I buy and sell slaves," Phargas admitted his eyes lowered.

Heist looked at the Interrogator, who was looking at the prisoner with utter contempt in his eyes.

"TELL HIM!" he shouted at Phargas, bringing real fear to the cringing man's eyes.

"I buy and sell breeding stock!" Phargas cried out, cringing before the Interrogator.

"Breeding stock," Heist repeated, quietly, but in a voice laced with contempt.

"Mr. Phargas is from New Carthage, one of the six worlds currently not in the Union due to their acceptance of slavery. The company he works for breeds slaves for specific requirements, sir," the Interrogator informed Adm. Heist.

"It might be that they require slaves, of exceptional strength, or exceptional aggressiveness. Women, who are selectively bred to be docile, and exceedingly beautiful, but with no real mental abilities to speak of," the Interrogator ended, true hatred showing in his stance.

"Cdr. Teal," Heist snapped, "you will control yourself, sir! If, you cannot, you will relinquish your duties as interrogator. Is that understood?" Heist demanded of Teal.

"Yes, sir," Teal acknowledged, his aggressive stance momentarily flagging somewhat.

"Place Mr. Phargas in a separate cell and post a two-man guard on him 24/7 until further notice. Mr. Phargas is going to become a very special 'guest' of the Union. We would not want anything to happen to him while in our custody," Heist informed the Interrogator.

"You Mr. Phargas are going to tell us everything, and I do mean everything, you know about the slave markets you deal with. Fail to remember or 'selectively' remember something that we find out about later will cost you dearly," Heist told him with true venom in his voice.

"Get this piece of shit out of my sight," Heist ordered. Phargas was dragged unceremoniously from the room, screaming about his rights all the way.

Heist opened his wrist comp and entered a specific code. "I need to see you and all the senior leaders immediately on the Platform," Heist informed the voice that answered. He closed his comp without further explanation.

Conference Room One, Whisky Level, Liramor-23

Adm. Rolland Heist was the last one to enter the conference room before Cmdre Marsh sealed it. In the room with Heist were Adm James Hannison, the JAG of the Navy, Adm. George Ramison, Chief of the Navy, FAdm. Charles Thenton, Commander of Sector Forty-Two, VAdm. Mirotomo Hittu, JAG of Sector Forty-Two, Cdre. Fiona Marsh, Commander of the Piscium system and Director of the Liramor-23 (LMC-23) Mining Platform, Capt. Beverly Davis, Civilian Liaison Officer for LMC-23, and the various aides-de-camp for the admirals.

Heist started the brief immediately.

"This is Cdr. Teal, one of the Navy Intelligence Interrogators currently assigned to the Dewfall," Heist said by way of explanation. "I will let him continue," Heist said, before sitting down.

"Sirs, I am Cdr. Franz Teal, Intelligence Investigations Interrogator, and temporarily attached to the Dewfall while we Interrogate the recently captured prisoners. We have discovered a man from New Carthage, capital city of the planet New Hadria, one Philaman Phargas, who is one of the survivors of the Pollard. He was in a crew uniform; however, he was not crew but a special advisor to the late Adm. Kittering, a task he never got to provide.

"Mr. Phargas is a slave trader, specifically interested in 'breeding stock', and was there to advise Adm. Kittering of those specimens who would bring the best profit from his trading company, the Handren Trading Company.

"The Handren Company is a well known trading company from New Carthage, dealing with all manner of items in trade between the planet and the Union. It was suspected, but not confirmed until now, that they also dealt with slaves. They not only deal with slaves, according to Mr. Phargas they breed slaves for specific purposes, creating slaves tailor made for specific industries on New Carthage and other worlds where slavery is accepted," Teal finished.

"Mr. Phargas has suddenly become very happy to tell us all he knows about his former company," Heist said taking over the brief. "We will pump him for everything he knows, however, the Handren family has close ties with many wealthy Union families mostly due to its trading links. It also has ties to Union families heavily invested in Union politics, including the family of the current President.

"I am going to have to start an intelligence investigation, but I will not be able to conduct that investigation from within my own offices. Fiona, I want your permission to conduct this investigation from here, on Liramor-23.

"You should be aware, that if anything happens and this investigation explodes in our faces, as it well might, you could lose everything, possibly even your life." Heist finished.

Fiona did not hesitate. "You have my permission to conduct this investigation from this station. Whatever you need, we will provide. This task will remain amongst this group of people, and the select few that will be directly involved in this task. You will need someone from the platform's civilian operations. Might I suggest Fayad Ouihya. He is known to us from another intelligence operation and would be an ideal candidate, as he has shown discretion regarding those other operations."

"An excellent choice, Fiona," Heist admitted. "Call him in, please."

Fayad entered the room with all eyes on him, a situation that he was becoming used to. He stopped at the end of the table in proper executive fashion, hands behind his back, waiting expectantly for instructions or explanations.

"Please take a seat, Fayad," Heist told him, with a smile. "You're giving me a crick in the neck making me look up at you."

Fayad took a seat.

"This is Cdr. Franz Teal," Heist began. "He will be running a very special intelligence operation from this platform. You and he will become very good friends, Fayad, as you will be his civilian counterpart working for the platform."

Fayad looked to Fiona, who gave him a brief nod. He turned back to Adm. Heist and gave him a curt nod of his own.

"As you command, sir," Fayad stated simply. Both Heist, and Teal barked out a laugh which brought the ghost of a smile to Fayad.

Malihan Regional Hospital, Green's World, Harn Star System, Twenty Light Years from Terra

Anaya watched carefully as Sean Murphy went through his paces in the large physiotherapy gym. He was currently working through lunge squats, were he would step forward and then bend his knee almost to the floor with twenty-five kg weights in each hand, pause for a second then stand up and step forward with the other leg.

"You're doing good, Sean," she encouraged as he worked up a sweat. His legs had massed out and developed the muscle he needed to do all that was necessary. Now, he was working to develop tone, control, and balance. As the session ended, Anaya knew he was ready.

"Have you decided what you want to do?" Anaya asked him, as he put away the weights. She was referring to his dilemma about his private nurse, Ayesha Seito. They had become lovers, and Sean didn't want to leave her.

As if she knew she was being spoken of, Ayesha was suddenly coming toward the pair. She smiled to Sean, but Anaya could tell that her heart was heavy. She knew he would be leaving soon. As Ayesha came towards them, he stopped her several paces from him.

"Watch what Anaya has had me doing," he said, and did a lunge thrust and another, however, on his last lung he bent his knee to the gym floor and pulled something from his pocket.

"Ayesha Seito, you have been my personal nurse, my friend, and my lover these past few months, and I am not sure how I will be able to go on without you, so I will ask of you something personal," he said in a harsh whisper that barely carried to the two people looking down on him.

"Ayesha, will you be my wife?" he asked, opening the box and showing a ring with a large jewel on it.

Both ladies' jaws fell open in absolute shock. He had not shown any inclination toward this to either of them, though both knew how hard he was taking his imminent departure.

He looked up expectantly to Ayesha, his eyes pleading with her to accept.

Ayesha's heart leapt into her throat. She didn't know what to do and looked around for support. Her eyes landed on Anaya who suddenly was urgently nodding her head and smiling at her. She made a movement with her hand, silently telling Ayesha to accept.

Ayesha looked down into Sean's eyes, and saw something totally unexpected. Fear. Real fear. Not the fear of rejection, but the fear of loss. Of losing her. It was evident that he did not want to leave her. That fear melted her heart. A single tear fell from her eyes and she nodded her head yes, uncertain if her voice would work.

Sean was suddenly standing, holding Ayesha tightly to his chest, her feet dangling off the gym floor. He twirled her around as Anaya whooped once in utter joy, catching the others in the gym by surprised.

Sean knelt again on one knee, sitting Ayesha on the upturned knee. He gently pulled the ring from the box, and with shaking hands, slid it onto her tiny finger. The kiss was long a deep, and neither of them heard the cheering and clapping until the kiss ended, embarrassment overtaking them momentarily.

Anaya knew she was going to lose her friends, but she had been prepared for that. Sean was a miner, and Ayesha a nurse. She could go almost anywhere with him as nurses were always needed. It would take her a little longer to get her medical degree, but their future together looked good.

IPPF HQ, Liramor City, Liramor Prime

C. Supt. Maria Sanger Director of Operations IPPF on Liramor Prime, had gathered members of the press for an announcement. She stepped up to the podium and prepared herself for the worst.

"Last night," Sanger began, "acting on a tip provided to a task force that has been working on Interplanetary Crime syndicates, we raided the homes and businesses of several members of the Phiata Crime Family and their associates. With the assistance of the local Police Forces, we conducted forty-two warrants principally around Liramor City, but also in other cities around the globe.

"Over 400 members of the Phiata Crime Syndicate and their associates have been placed in custody, pending the intelligence that we have gathered in the raids. The tip, was in reference to a contract on the Dark Web for the deaths of Dir. Fiona Marsh, of the Liramor-23 Mining Platform, and her former aide-de-camp, Capt. Henadi Noor.

"The IPPF, has conducted a deep probe of the Dark Web to find the originator of the contracts, and we acted on intelligence made from recent arrests that ultimately led to the actions taken last night. The Dark Web turned out to be a veritable treasure trove of criminal intelligence now that we have the main computers working the outlying servers. We have the comms codes necessary to break criminal activity conducted on the web as far back ten years ago.

"Due to the ongoing nature of this investigation, I can say no more about the events of last night as this is an active case that will shortly be before the courts, and will involve many cases that are currently active or considered to be 'cold cases'," Sanger finished.

That had the media in a screaming match as they lashed out at the Sanger and the other senior members of the IPPF for not informing them of their actions the previous evening.

"We did have accredited members of the media embedded with us," Sanger informed the assembled media, "who took images that, in time, will be distributed to all of the major networks on Liramor Prime," Sanger informed them.

"By law, you should have informed us before you executed the warrants," a man who Sanger recognized as a senior member of Pan Galactic News on Liramor Prime shouted.

"What law, sir?" Sanger asked him.