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Legacy of the Guardians
by
AJ Marks
Chapter 1
The scanner operator sat at his station bored out of his mind. Things were quite dull and nothing seemed to be happening. He guessed that that was good news, however, it meant that he would sit here staring at the monitor for several hours with nothing at all coming in. He yawned and stretched his back muscles that were getting stiff from sitting in one position for far to long.
"Can today get any more boring than it already is?" He said out loud to himself. The room was almost empty as it was the down time and only a couple of the stations were manned, one being the scanners. He hated this shift whenever he got it, because of the lack of activity and personal in the control room. Usually he could eavesdrop on a conversation or two and that would help him keep his focus on the monitor in front of him. He was looking forward to going home for the holidays and the new year coming up, this year he would have all the holidays off, Halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas and new year's.
The monitor that he had been watching suddenly sprung to life spewing out all kinds of data. Someone was sending another signal to earth from an unknown source. He hit the record button and quickly went to notify his commanding officer of the events that were going on.
Admiral Jack 'Red Beard' Cave sat at his desk and leaned back. He stood about five foot ten and his once red hair was thinning on top, but it was his beard and mustache that gave him his nickname. His beard was a dark red color and when he had been a captain the crew had started to call him red beard after the pirate. It had been a quiet year so far, and he was really hoping that it would remain that way. There had been a few moments of excitement for his staff. About a month ago there was a couple of strange signals sent to earth, but the origin was determined to not be from the Skartian sector of space.
The war between the Skartian and human races ended about sixty years ago. The war had finally ended with a human victory and the destruction of the Skartian fleet near Pluto almost ten years ago. Since then the two races had signed a peace treaty and no word had been heard from them.
Admiral Cave was dealing with an increasingly shrinking budget now that the war was over. He still had a large and powerful fleet to protect earth from any new invaders. At the moment they left the fleet to do training exercises to keep the fleet and its personal from getting complacent, which was dangerous.
Jack thought back to the couple of times when they had encountered some strange signals in the past year. Just thinking about the signals caused a deep gut reaction that something terrible was going to happen, what he did not know. He had learned during the war to trust his gut, but this time he hoped that he was wrong.
Jack thought back to the war against the Skartians. The Skartians were a cunning and powerful race and they reminded Jack of a gray hairless person. A few times mankind had almost lost the war, if it had not been for some timely technology advances they would have lost the war. Perhaps the greatest advancement was the neutron pulse cannon, which was the weapon that turned the tide of the war.
Before Jack could think back anymore an aide ran into the room with some bad news.
"Admiral, sir!" He said as he saluted, then carried on when Jack told him to. "The random signals that we have been intercepting, we intercepted another one and this time we were able to find out the language used."
"Let me guess, Skartian!" Jack said and got his response when the aide nodded his head in agreement. "Great!" Jack said to no one in particular. He rubbed his hand on the top of his head where he no longer had any hair.
"You keep doing that and you won't have any hair left, oh that's right, you don't have any hair anymore." A male voice said from the doorway.
Jack quickly turned to the doorway to see his friend, and second in command, Steve standing there. "Ha ha, that's real funny." Jack said in a teasing voice. "Seriously though, we've got a problem."
"What's up?" Steve said, his face reflecting the change in his mood to one of seriousness.
"Those mysterious signals, their Skartian in origin." Jack said dropping the statement in Steve's lap and watched his friend's reaction.
"Any idea as to what their up to?" Steve asked.
"Not a one, but I don't like it." Jack replied. "I think that we should increase the patrols and put the fleet on a secondary alert."
"Do you really think that's wise?" Steve said with some concern. "The Skartians could view that as an act of war."
"True, however they have started this one by sending secret signals to earth." Jack replied. "I think that the Galactic Council would agree with us on this one."
"Should we let our ambassador know?" Steve said asking the question he was dreading a little bit, to say that the Admiral and the ambassador did not get along was like saying the atomic bomb was a toddlers toy. The two men hated each other's guts. Steve only knew that the hatred had started when the two men were both pilots stationed aboard the Victory. Both men were ace pilots and were constantly fighting.
"I don't like it but." Jack sighed, "he should know."
"I'll let him know." Steve said and Jack nodded his thanks. Steve knew that the two men would not be able to agree on the color of the sky on a clear day, and saying hi to each other, well it was easier to feed a crocodile with your own hand.
"Thanks." Jack replied and watched as Steve walked out of the office.
Jack turned to the aide who was still standing next to him. "Get the 1st and 2nd patrol squads on alert."
"Yes sir!" The aide replied as he walked out of the room to carry out his orders. The aide wondered at the conversation he had overheard, the news did not sound good.
"Hey Greg, where're you going in such a hurry?" A voice said as he rounded a corner.
"Karen," He said looking around to see who called him, only to see his fiancée coming toward him. "I'm on my way up to the main control room to put the 1st and 2nd patrol squadrons on alert."
"What's going on?" She asked with some concern in her voice.
"Well it appears that the signals that we have been intercepting are Skartian in origin."
"Skartian? Are they sure?"
"Yep, looks like we could be back at war."
"What about the Galactic council? Surely they won't let the Skartians attack us again."
"I don't know, but the Skartians weren't happy about making peace with us."
"True! So we're going to be keeping an eye out for them?"
"Yep, I'll see you in about an hour."
"I'll be there." She replied as he continued to walk to the control room.
Randall Harrisan sat in his office listening to Steve Terial telling him how the Skartians were violating the peace treaty that the two races had signed. He hated to admit it, but Jack Cave was right about this one, the Skartians were clearly in violation of the peace treaty. He was just glad that it was Steve and not Jack who had called him.
"Send me all of the information so I can be well informed at the council meeting tomorrow." Randall asked of Steve.
"I'll get everything we've got sent over to you right away so you have time to read over it." Steve said as he signed off to send the information to the ambassador.
Randall sat back down in his chair and wondered what was going on. He also hoped that the documents that were being sent over would shed some light on what he could do in the council.
The computer on his desk chimed that he had recieved some mail. Randall knew that it was the information that he had requested. He opened the file and knew from the large size of the file that he would be up most of the night. He walked to his small kitchen and started up the coffee maker, he would need it before the night was over. He then walked back to his desk and sat down. He sighed and brought up the file and started reading.
"This can't be right!" A middle aged man said from his seat in the command center of the Battlecruiser Moscow.
A young Middle Eastern man looked up from where he was setting to see his captain. "What's wrong sir?" Ahmed asked.
"I've got a conformation request in to headquarters for the orders. They've ordered us to begin patrolling the neutral zone!" The captain replied.
"The neutral zone?" Ahmed asked a bit shocked about the orders. "I'd get conformation also. Patrolling the neutral zone will violate the peace treaty."
"True, but if these orders really are from Admiral Cave then something is about to happen, and we should be ready for anything." The captain said. "I fought beside him about twenty years ago, and he was always had a sixth sense about these type things."
Ahmed looked down as the orders came back through, and there was no difference in the orders, they were to patrol the neutral zone right away. "Shall I inform the rest of the ships sir?" He asked the captain.
"No, I'll do it myself, thanks anyway." The captain replied.
"Yes sir!"
Within the hour the battlecruiser Moscow and her six escort ships left the fleet base station, Independence, for the neutral zone.
Randall waited patently as the members of the Galactic congress slowly came into the huge room and sat down. He looked around trying to see if the ambassador of the Skartian Empire would show up today. The ambassador would not always show up, usually saying that this council was a waste of time for everybody. Ironically it was the council that finally forced a peace treaty between the Humans and Skartians. It was also because of the Skartians that the Human race was allowed in the council.
Most races that belonged to the council thought that the humans were much like the Skartians, violent and quick to react to anything. The only thing of importance that really separated the two races was the fact that humans were nobler, and if they gave you their word, they meant it, but cross them and they could be violent.
Randall noticed that the Skartian ambassador did walk into the room and made a point to make sure that they made eye contact. Randall gave the Skartian a smile of ice and he grinned inwardly when the Skartian flinched. Randall was glad that the Skartian showed up, but he also wondered about it, the fact was that the ambassador had been missing more and more meetings lately and it worried Randall a bit.
"You should not do that Ran Dall." A voice said from over Randall's shoulder. He knew who it was before he turned around, only one person made his name sound like it was two words, and that was the ambassador from Ilder.
"But then I would not be having any fun Kinser." Randall replied. "How are things on Ilder?"
"Not bad, there's been a few trade disagreements with one of our colonies, but as a whole things have been quite peaceful." Kinser replied. "What about you?"
"There's been some activity from the Skartians that I plan on challenging today."
"It should be an interesting session then."
"Yes it should be!" Randall said starting toward his seat and Kinser followed, his seat being near Randall's.
Most of the council members were in attendance Randall noticed. That would make this council session very interesting indeed, Randall could hardly wait till it started.
The president of the council got up in front and dolled on about the usual business, trade agreements and such. There was a big disagreement over trade between the Utilil and the Hzans that was threatening the economic stability of the Beta quadrant, and a feud that had erupted again amongst the Wavery. These were the two big agendas for this meeting, and Randall that he was going to drop another bomb on the council.
"The council has two grievances brought before it, one by the Skartian Empire and the other from the Human delegation." The president said after rushing through the other things. A person could almost hear the groans as the announcement was made. "The council will hear the Skartian ambassador first, then the council will hear from the Human ambassador." The president said setting up the turn of events and watched as the Skartian stood up.
"There has been a violation of the Skartian-Human Peace Pact. Several hours ago our outposts observed a Human war fleet near the neutral zone." His statement was greeting with a hushed silence. This, if true could be considered an act of war and that is what the galaxy did not need. Randall did not visible react to the news, his turn would come soon enough.
"The Humans know that this is a violation of the Section 53 Article 3 of our peace agreement. As the ambassador to this council I demand, on behalf of my people, that the Human race be punished and banished from the council." The Skartian ambassador demanded to a now hushed council room. Most wondered what type of defense the Human ambassador would give, for he had been silent and looked almost bored throughout the Skartian's outburst.
Randall slowly got up and looked around the room, making sure he made eye contact with as many ambassadors as he could. He quietly shuffled the papers in front of him before he began.
"Fellow members," Randall began. "That which my Skartian counterpart claims that my race has done is only part of the truth. Yes we have military warships patrolling near the neutral zone."
Randall's statement brought a buzz to the room as everyone was talking at once. The president was trying to establish order as the Skartian ambassador was now yelling at the top of his lungs for some sort of sanctions to be done against the humans.
"Ambassador, I hope you know what the consequences are of your statement." The president said after order was established.
"Yes I do, but I wonder if my Skartian counterpart does." Randall said calmly looking over at the Skartian ambassador and smiled inwardly when the Skartian flinched again. 'He knows what I'm about to say, interesting.' "We only reacted to a violation done to us by the Skartians. It was them who violated the treaty first. As everyone knows we may have patrol warships if there is anything threatening toward my home planet."
"What has that got to do with anything?" The Skartian ambassador asked starting to get angry.
"Everything!" Randall replied, his voice as cold as ice. "We have intercepted Skartian transmissions to Earth, that is also a violation of the Peace Treaty. In fact Article 6, Section 5 prohibits the Skartian race from making contact with Earth at all."
"Lies, they are all lies." The Skartian ambassador yelled, his temper quickly rising out of control.
"This contact is considered a threat to our national security." Randall continued not letting the Skartian get to him. The rest of the council members seemed to be backing Randall.
"They have no proof, therefore what the human says is lies, all of it." The Skartian again yelled.
"Do you have any proof to back up your allegations?" Another ambassador calmly asked Randall.
"Yes I do." Randall said handing a copy of the transcripts over to the council guard.
"I suggest that the council look over your claims and will suggest a course of action, is that agreeable with both parties?" The president asked.
"Yes!" Randall said.
"No its not, what about my claims?" The Skartian asked.
"Well, seeing how the Human ambassador acknowledged your claims and brought up a sound argument against it that too will wait until the council has had a chance to look at the evidence." The president said with a note of finality in his voice.
End Ch1
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