scans.
Sheppard and Brandon proceeded into the meeting complex.
“That treaty is no coincidence, Bob,” replied Brandon. “With the Varlon expanding again, our diplomats were dispatched about the same time you were on your way to Star One. Prime Minister Desserix wanted it arranged, and Chief of Staff Orlond helped accomplish the treaty process. Now we can move some ships to other duties and refit a few as well. I’ve heard that the Viridians generally have a reasonable sense of honor and most likely will not break the treaty.”
“At least not until they have a major government change, which hopefully won’t be for several years from now,” commented Sheppard.
“It’s also good for us that the Varlon, with their xenophobic ways, don’t have ties with the Viridian—or the Meiosian, for that matter. By the way,” Avery said, “the Meiosian have also been persuaded, with the help of a territory grant, to sign a nonaggression treaty with us.”
“That’s good news, as the Alliance can concentrate on holding the Varlon back,” replied Sheppard.
The two entered a series of hallways and were joined by a few other officers. When they got to the actual meeting area, for security purposes both were required to submit to DNA scans again for identification verification.
“That’s a bit extreme,” Sheppard said.
Brandon shook his head. “Not if you consider that some of the problems we’re having are due to a morphic species not well known by the Alliance of Worlds; however, I’ve been told the Karratins and the Estrians know of them and have been informing us of how to take precautions,” he said.
After entering the rather large meeting chamber, Sheppard noted a few Alpha- and Delta-class androids assisting security. The large, non-sentient Deltas were basically robots with weapons, and they were sometimes used as heavy armored security.
Looking around the room, Sheppard noticed an old family friend talking to one of the sentient and humanoid-appearing Alphas: Fleet Admiral Nigel Braddock. He was another fellow human from Earth and a good friend to both Robert Sheppard and his Star Knight father, Allan. Sheppard had known Nigel Braddock for several decades. To his friends, Braddock was jokingly known as Mister Stasis, because he had spent so much of his life in suspension of one kind or another, since the mid-twenty-first century, until he acquired various anti-aging and rejuvenation procedures from the Karratins.
Braddock looked in Sheppard’s direction and moved toward him with a hand outstretched for a handshake, a traditional Earth greeting.
“Good to see you, Bob. And you too, Brandon.” Braddock shook both men’s hands in a formal greeting. He was an older gentleman, clean cut, with dark brown hair lined with many streaks of gray. He had blue-gray eyes.
Sheppard knew Nigel was much older than he appeared; he had been born in the 1990s, in Scotland, on Earth. By using combinations of everything from early cryo-stasis devices and anti-aging formulas to genetic alteration, tissue regeneration, even temporary cybernetic replacement, Nigel had managed to keep alive.
Nigel was an engineer and businessman; he was also president of BradCorp, a diversified company building starships and robots, and similar devices. He even had helped design a line of sea and space ships for SEDA—the Sea Exploration and Defense Association—including one called the Oceania-class cruiser, which was also used by the Alliance of Worlds. He was now in the Star Command section because of his reserve status, which had begun when he joined TERRASEC, the Terran Space Exploration Council. Later, when that organization merged with the Alliance of Worlds, Braddock continued an intermittent affiliation. He found it a beneficial one, as three centuries ago Earth had been one of the founding planets of the Alliance of Worlds.
“Well, it’s good to see you,” Sheppard told his old friend.
“I heard you had an accident,” stated Commodore Avery.
“Yes, a saboteur tried to blow up a section of one of my starship refit stations, and I happened to be in it,” replied Braddock. “Luckily, it was one of my own facilities, and I have good security systems and sensors. My droids had detected advanced warning signs, and the explosion was contained partially with force fields. The saboteur’s ship escaped using some sort of masking technology similar to what the Varlon use. Afterward, fortunately, we didn’t lose much data, as some old holographic data crystals were used as backup for the facilities information.”
“We’re glad you’re alive and well, Admiral,” Avery said, “although you’re not the only one using the old holographic data crystals as backup storage. We have had to implement that at security central as a result of recent data losses to some of the station’s primary memory systems.”
“Yes indeed, it’s good you were not personally harmed,” added Sheppard. “Now what are you doing here, sir? I thought you had a command in the engineering branch when you do your reserve time.”
“Usually I do,” Braddock said. “However, due to the loss of command staff, I have been reassigned to an active command section. I do have experience in fleet command, though not as much as I would like, considering the problem we’re likely to face. You may not be aware of this, but I have been informed the Varlon are again charging forward and looking to take new territory.”
Sheppard said, “I have some knowledge, and Avery here has informed me of some things as well. I understand part of today’s meeting will be a briefing, preceded by a promotion session. It seems I will be receiving another star cluster.”
“May I be one of the first to congratulate you on your promotion to commodore, Bob,” Braddock said.
Just then, Prime Minister Desserix and Chief of Staff Orlond walked into the meeting hall. Sheppard watched as they moved to the central area.
“There will be some notables here today for a short period of time,” Brandon said. “The Betellians have sent their Ambassador Viess, who is also one of their admirals. He will be giving a presentation at this briefing. Since the Betellians are here only briefly and may not likely get a longer opportunity to meet with our prime minister separately, the PM decided to come here personally.”
Sheppard looked around the large room. Several other officers had entered, many of whom were non-human. Some required atmospheric modification and had small devices attached near their breathing orifices. Desserix himself belonged to the Rigezon Alliance another founder of the Alliance of Worlds.
The Rigezon had been in space somewhat longer than the people from Earth, perhaps by two centuries, and they were fair and generally honorable. The Rigezon were essentially an avian or birdlike people; they had a remnant wing structure but were flightless. All were highly pigmented, mostly in blue or greenish shades, occasionally mixed with oranges and browns.
Sheppard saw the prime minister’s chief of staff in the hall already. He remembered that Orlond was from the Epsilon Four Confederation, who had also joined the Alliance of Worlds as one of the founding members. They were humanoid in general structure and had light orange-colored skin. Orlond’s people had been spacefarers for a few centuries now, about as long as the Terrans of Earth.
Others were arriving—a few grand admirals, fleet admirals, vice admirals, and commodores of many different racial groups that comprised the Alliance. A few were humans. Sheppard recognized an old acquaintance, Commodore Tang, whose great grandparents originally came from China, on Earth. Some were here for a briefing and a few for both a promotion and the briefing, like Sheppard.
Two
