First up I would strongly suggest that if you haven't read the earlier chapters please do so before reading this one, it will explain a lot of things...
Now, enjoy. BB1212
*****
The intergalactic navy was now in full combat preparation mode. We had to be. I knew the Parsks were coming to attack us, and I knew when this would happen, but unfortunately I knew nothing else about them. This meant that we had to prepare for every possibility that we could imagine. I trained regularly with my bodyguards on their MSU range and, by pure persistence I soon became as proficient with the weapon as they were. The Stellar 2's were kept on maximum rotation, every one of them being used for twenty hours a day and maintained for four. We soon had a lot of proficient and combat qualified pilots that we could utilise when we needed to. We kept enough of them at the bases on standby at all times so that in the event of an attack we could call back any rookies who were flying at the time and put a combat pilot in the craft immediately.
I issued a command that every member of the Intergalactic Navy who had a link and an MSU must wear that uniform whenever they were on duty, and I strongly recommended that they also wear it whenever possible at other times.
I decided to tell Freed the real story about the energy weapons, and I put him in charge of arming the Stellar 2's with them when the time came. He did a great job of thoroughly segmenting the tasks so that nobody would suspect what was planned while still making sure that when it was needed those involved would still be able to work together to assemble the weapons and arm the aircraft with minimum delay. We adapted the same system to ensure the weapons for the ground troops would also be quickly available when needed. Of course, this was all achieved using direct voice commands and none of the planning was ever communicated electronically.
About a week later I had a request to visit the local police, to assist with an investigation, and the officer I spoke to pompously said that they were investigating a rape claim that had been made against me, and that he had decided that it would be safer for the public if I was to be held in custody for the duration of their investigation.
I had enough experience of being in custody from when the Mayflower returned, and I didn't want to go through that again. As well as that we had a war to prepare for, and I knew I was an absolute necessity for that.
I looked at the man in front of me.
"Tell me Captain Fogg," I said gently, "how painful this needs to get."
"If the allegations are true, as I believe they are, then it will be very painful for you," he said smugly.
"Actually, I meant for you," I replied, and he laughed.
"This won't be painful for me at all," he said, "I expect to get a very big promotion when I bring a conviction. It is a very strong case, and due to the blockers that everyone but the military has, there has not been a recorded rape in decades. This will only be good for me." I nodded. I knew enough not to respond to the allegations without legal representation, but I also had to get myself back to the base so I could continue with the work in hand.
"Captain, I am sure this will be brought to trial and you will get your chance for glory when that happens, but in the meantime I have a very important job to do, and I have no intention of sitting in a cell while you get your case together."
"I'm afraid what you want is not relevant in this case," Fogg replied smugly, "we need to make sure the public is safe from... from people like you."
"Funny enough, I thought the public was safe thanks to people like me," I said, resisting my sudden urge to test my MSU on his head. His people obviously hadn't realised that I was armed.
"History," he said with dripping distain, and I grinned. OK, so he wanted painful.
"Fine," I replied, "now bring in someone of equivalent rank to me so this can be handled correctly." He spluttered.
"I don't need to do that," he eventually said indignantly.
"Have you ever heard of Oscar Yillidie?" I asked.
"No. What relevance is that?"
"You haven't heard of him because he is the last jumped up little self-important prick in a uniform who tried to run this sort of stunt on me," I replied conversationally.
"How dare you..."
"Now are you going to get a senior officer or is this going to get ugly?"
"That's it," Fogg shouted, "restrain him." Two police officers who had been standing behind me took hold of my arms.
As a personal observation, I think that was the major problem with the police force back then when we had it. They called all of their people officers. In the military, an officer is a manager and the other ranks are the workers. The police had all managers and no workers, so their whole system was fucked up to start with.
Using my mental link, I used my interface to put a priority call in to Rickson on my communicator, and fortunately for Fogg he answered. I say fortunately because my next option would have been Androger, and that could have got very messy very quickly.
"What's up Josh?" Rickson said, and Fogg stared at my communicator as if it had suddenly proven that magic did exist after all.
"I am being physically restrained by three members of the police who want to hold me in custody after questioning me about a crime but also having not officially charged me. They have refused to involve an equivalent rank officer to me; the senior one here is Captain Fogg. I request permission to use force to defend myself."
"Are you armed Josh?" Rickson asked with a smile in his voice.
"MSU," I responded.
"Holy fuck." Our esteemed president exclaimed, the smile gone. "No, for fucks sake don't use that, I will sort it. Captain Fogg do you know who this is?"
"I don't really care," Fogg responded haughtily.
"I am Dixscon Rickson, President of the World Council of Nations, and you are holding a man who is armed with a weapon that could wipe the three of you off the face of the Earth in nanoseconds. He does not need movement to operate this weapon."
"I find all of that very hard to believe," Fogg said arrogantly, and to demonstrate his lack of concern he theatrically picked out an apple from his bag and raised to his lips. I waited until it was as close as possible to his mouth and then I hit it with the MSU.
"Oh fuck," one of the police officers who was holding me moaned as Fogg sat frozen in shock, with small fragments of his apple all over his face and his uniform.
"What did you just do Josh?" Rickson asked. He sounded very afraid.
"Nothing serious Sir, it was just an apple." You could hear Rickson's sigh of relief over the communicator.
"Fogg," he demanded, but Fogg wasn't answering. Fogg wasn't doing anything except sitting in his own shit. It wasn't a nice smell for the rest of us.
"Fogg has shit himself," I said conversationally, "I don't think he is quite capable of talking and crapping at the same time." I heard a vindictive snigger from behind me.
"Who is next in charge?" Rickson demanded.
"Uh, me Sir, Sargent Rinkle," one of the cops holding my arms said nervously.
"OK Rinkle, you saw what happened to the apple?"
"Yes Sir."
"The weapon is designed to be used on anything organic, and the man you are holding is an expert in using it. He could easily do that to you." Rinkle groaned.
"It doesn't have to be the head though," I said with a grin, "it could just be an arm or a leg."
"You're not helping Josh," Rickson said.
"Sorry Sir." We both knew I wasn't.
