Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron (30 page)

When the other Raptor team arrived, they took custody of the girl. Alan had a long talk with Major Gh'rallith about her and send a report on the investigation with the team as well. From talking to Ty, Alan knew they would be taking her to Hades base to hold her until the Council could decide how to handle her. He thought it was somewhat strange that Ty told him all information about this was even classified, and he needed to brief his team and the designers accordingly.

"We're not going to cover this up, are we?" Alan asked.

"Yes and no, I'm trying to keep information about Chelsea under control for a couple of reasons. One, she is a minor and this was a pretty major crime. She needs to be protected from the possible backlash that could come out of this. Two, Ian suggested we try to keep a lid on all of this because it deals with a very sensitive issue," Ty explained. "Finally, I have my own reasons for wanting to keep information about her restricted."

"Ty, she's fourteen years old! You can't be trying to recruit her!" Alan replied, shocked at his superior.

"Alan, did you watch a lot of television when you were on Earth?" Ty asked.

"What the hell does that have to do with this?"

"Well, if I said the name 'Penelope Garcia' to you, what would it mean?" Ty asked reasonably. "Yes, I'm trying to recruit her, but not for the teams."

"You got something else going on and you want her for that, don't you?" Alan asked. "Just… promise me it won't be dangerous, okay?"

"No more dangerous than her current job was," Ty replied. "Actually, it'll probably be safer; she'll be here."

"Yeah? How's that gonna work? It's a solid military base with no associated parasite town. No kids her own age, no one for her to relate to. Do you plan on locking her in her office with her computers?" Alan countered.

"Not exactly. Sammi is going to offer to be her guardian. She will live with Sammi on Atlas, and the pair of them will commute back and forth just like Sammi does now. When there is a mission or something, She'll stay here in the apartment we'll have set up for her," Ty explained. "Of course, this is all really dependent on the girl and how the Council will react to the charges against her."

"It's a criminal case, why would the Council even be involved?" Ty asked.

"Capitol Crimes. The way our laws are written the Council is the only body that can legally handle espionage and treason cases. Kind of like a Grand Jury back on Earth except these are our national leaders," Ty replied. "This is the only espionage case we've ever had. I imagine something else will be done if they become more common."

"I want to be available for questioning in this case. Do you know when it'll be heard?" Alan asked.

"The Council has a pretty full docket right now, but she has to be tried within the next week. I'll let either you or Andreya know as soon as I find out," Ty replied.

"Well, be sure to ask the girl before you drop this on her. Blindsiding her with it might be worse than executing her," Alan said.

"I'm not that cold-hearted. Keep the faith, Brother. Hades Base out." Ty replied and signed off.

Of her own volition, Chelsea wrote letters of apology to Admiral Williams, Dr. Punjab, Mathias, Dr. Schmidt, and each of the Councilors apologizing for her actions. In the case of the Council, the letters were withheld pending the trial so as not to influence the Council one way or the other.

The trial itself was held in the evening, after normal business had been concluded. It was the only time available for the council to hear the case. Alan postponed the tests scheduled for that evening so he and Andreya could attend. He was surprised when the rest of the project team insisted on accompanying them.

The trial itself was closed as it dealt with sensitive information. The randomly selected AI would serve as official recorder of the proceedings and be allowed to release a copy of the transcripts after the trial. In this manner, any references to classified information could be removed before release. Alan and Andreya were allowed, as he was the arresting officer. Dr. Schmidt and Olivia were also allowed as members of the affected project. Alan was surprised to see Admiral Williams, Dr. Punjab and a large group of people he knew and some he didn't.

As it turned out some of those he didn't know were the prosecuting officer from Fleet Intelligence and Security, a defending officer from the Judge Advocate General's office and the recording AI. The AI was from a civilian shipyard in orbit of Mars where they built the large civilian freighters and other ships. One other official of the courts was a telepath to ensure only the truth was given.

The trial itself was relatively quick. The evidence and testimony was pretty straight-forward. Chelsea even admitted to her crimes and again apologized for them. The last person to testify was the telepath who only affirmed she detected no deceit from any party involved. She testified that the defendant was indeed guilty in her own mind but was also repentant and resigned to accept punishment.

The Council recessed to deliberate but returned after only a few minutes.

"It is the order of this court that the census data concerning the minor Citizen Chelsea Irons and the Citizen Heather Kinds be corrected immediately." Luke paused as he thought of how to say what he needed. "The fact that Citizen Chelsea Irons did knowingly act to sabotage a military research project is clear. However, her actions, although requiring considerable planning and forethought, do not reflect a desire to inflict harm or injury. Her motives for her actions are clear and understood. Therefore, it is the ruling of this body that the main charges of Military level espionage be reduced to that of Felony-Level Misconduct. Although her actions do constitute as well as fulfill the requirements for Military Espionage, it is clear that was not her intent and does not justify the required penalty of the higher crime.

"Over the course of the last year, Miss Irons has been living as an adult and comported herself in such a way as to successfully conceal herself and her true identity. Therefore, her crimes will be considered as those of an adult."

He looked down at his datapad, took a breath and continued. "Count one - Felony Misconduct with criminal intent. We find the defendant, Chelsea Irons, guilty of all charges and specifications.

"Count two - Felony Misconduct with Malicious intent. We find the defendant, Chelsea Irons,
Not
guilty of all charges and specifications.

"Count three - Identity Theft. We find the defendant, Chelsea Irons, guilty of all charges and specifications.

"The remaining charges are summarily dismissed as redundant. We will now listen to any statements we might need in considering sentence," Luke said and sat back down. It was clear he did not like this part of his job.

Doctor Schmidt and Olivia beat Ty to the punch, as they stood, surprising Alan.

"Please Identify yourselves for the record, citizens," the AI said.

"I am Doctor Wilhelm Schmidt and this is my daughter, Doctor Olivia Wilcox. We are two of the leaders of the project Miss Irons altered. We have been asked to speak on behalf of our entire team, if we may."

Luke nodded and the AI turned back to him. "Please proceed Doctor Schmidt."

"Thank you." The old man replied and bowed to Luke and the Council. "We of the FROG project, as a whole and as individuals, forgive Miss Irons her transgressions. We all can empathize with her motivation, and we respect the tenacity and strength of spirit it had to have taken. As a department, we beg this court to be lenient with her sentencing. Please consider that no harm was actually done by her actions. Yes, the potential for disaster was present, that was never her intent, and it was caught before it came to pass. This statement reflects the thoughts and feelings of everyone in our department. Again, thank you."

As the couple returned to their seats, Ty stood and approached the testimony podium.

Again, the AI asked for identification.

"General Tyler Anders, Commander of Special Operations."

Luke nodded again, and the AI let him speak.

Ty outlined his plan for 'adopting' the girl for special operations which took the entire council completely by surprise.

"General, let me get this straight; you want us to remand her over to you as punishment. You will then proceed to not only give her better hacking tools, but train her in how to use them effectively?" Luke asked.

Ty grinned. "Yeah, pretty much. We have a project in the works that requires highly skilled people with her unique qualifications. These people are rare in the extreme, even more so when you consider the position we will be entrusting them with. Look, your pretty limited on options for her; sending her to prison for the next twenty years might as well be a death sentence. For a girl like her, she'd never survive even the first year. What I'm suggesting is not 'letting her off'. While she will be paid for her work, and she'll have the ability to order items electronically, she will not be allowed to leave our base un-escorted for the next however long her sentence will be. There is precedent for indenturing a person convicted of a crime as opposed to a term in a prison.

"But not for a minor, General," one of the other Councilors replied.

Ty shook his head. "You convicted her as an adult, Councilor. You have to sentence her as one."

The Councilors pulled back from their microphones for a moment to confer. When they returned Luke once again stood. "Thank you for the offer, General." Ty bobbed his head and returned to his seat in the gallery.

"Chelsea Irons, please stand." The AI ordered. When the girl and her advocate did, Luke began. "You are hereby remanded to the Department of Corrections, there to be incarcerated for a period not to exceed eighteen years at the planetary work camp on the planet Atlas. Alternatively, you will be remanded to Special Operations Command for a period not to exceed twenty-five years. This will be subject to oversight by a member of the Department of Corrections and all travel privileges will be revoked. You will remain at the Hades base for the duration of your sentence. Violation of these terms will result in your immediate reassignment to the work camp. What is your decision?"

"I - I will go to Hades Base, Councilor. Thank you," Chelsea replied and bowed.

Luke nodded and tapped the gavel. "This trial is concluded. Good evening everyone."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Breckenridge Ski Resort

Colorado, Earth

Sol System, Sol Sector

The result of all the diplomatic crap at the UN was that, while the US still refused to recognize the Terrans as a Country, they did allow for entry visas to be issued. Ian and his family took advantage of the diplomatic situation to take a short vacation to Breckenridge Colorado for some skiing. Because she was a member of his family, Cindy, who was now on light duty, and the rest of the Damocles team were assigned to 'guard duty'. Ty told Ian that the team needed a break after the loss of Ben and the injuries to Cindy. Although she was not an official member of the team, Shannon would remain with them until such time as the team returned to Hades Base to adopt a new team member.

Ian also asked Bill, Julie and Janet Laskar to join them. He still remembered the warning Shies had given him. He had tried to speak to Janet in the last week, but both of them had been too busy to meet up. He almost felt as though Janet had been avoiding him.

The family had no more than gotten settled into the ski lodge before Chloe called Ian.

"This better be good Chloe; I'm on vacation," Ian said when he answered the call.

"I know Sir, and I am sorry about this but, High Priestess T'gan M'orel is coming here to speak with you. I tried to delay it, but she has already left Benesia and I was told that the meeting was of the highest importance. They were very insistent Sir," Chloe replied.

"If it's that important, why is she coming to see me and not the Council?" Ian asked rhetorically. "Did they happen to say what it was about?"

"No Sir, all I could get was the meeting was very important and she had to speak to you personally. They did schedule a meeting with the Council, but that's not for a week. The agenda lists seating an Ambassador here as one of the items for discussion, however, they asked for a large amount of time to be scheduled as there were other issues to be discussed," Chloe replied.

"Well, if she hasn't shown up on our detection network yet, we should have a couple of days at least before she arrives," Ian replied.

"Well Sir, about that…" Chloe said hesitantly.

"Spit it out, Chloe."

"Her ship showed up on sensors four hours ago. Since it was positively identified, passage was granted to Atlas via the customs station," she explained.

"So what your saying is that in roughly thirty hours, the leader of the Benesian people will arrive to speak to me, personally about an urgent, but as yet unknown matter?" Ian replied. "Chloe, I'm going to spank you."

"Uh… Sir, when I tried to delay the meeting, I told them that you were already on vacation and could not be disturbed…" she said hesitantly.

"Yes, so what's the problem?"

"Sir, she's coming to see you down there. They said that since this was a personal meeting, your vacation should not be interrupted," Chloe replied hurriedly.

"The supreme leader of the Benesian people is going to come here, to Earth, to speak with me in person. Is that what your telling me, Chloe?"

"Yes Sir, they are so insistent that it has been impossible to change their minds; they're Benesians, Sir; it's not like we can threaten them!"

Ian sighed and shook his head. "Chloe, that spanking is going to be on the bridge and I'm going to broadcast it to the entire fleet!"

"This is getting interesting!" Cindy said quietly from one side. Ian lightly slapped the back of her head.

"A…as you say, Sir, I really am sorry, I tried everything I could think of to get them to change their minds," Chloe replied.

"Oh please!" Cindy said so Chloe could hear her. "Chloe, playing meek and innocent just isn't you! You know damn good and well that Ian would never do something like that to you, no matter how much you wish he would!"