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Legacy of the Guardians
by
AJ Marks
Chapter 2
Jack Cave walked into office to begin another day of work. He thought about the intercepted transmissions that the outposts had intercepted and contemplated passing the news on to his superior on earth. Last time he had brought something like this up he had been dismissed without a second thought. That had made him a bit mad, but his superior was right in the long run. This time however his instinct told him to start doing something now, or else it would be to late to stop whatever plan was in motion by the Skartians.
"Get me General Ginal as soon as possible." Jack told his secretary, who imminently went to work. A couple of minutes later she informed him that the general was on the line and Jack picked up the phone.
"Jack, what's been going on my friend? How are things up at Independence Station?" General Ginal asked Jack.
"Things have been peaceful, however far from quiet sir." Jack answered.
"Oh, how so?" The general asked.
"Well sir, we've been having some intermentent signals coming from a Skartian source." Jack told him and waited for his reaction to the news.
"Hmmm! That's a bit interesting, what are we doing about it?" The general asked Jack.
"I've informed Randall and he is talking to the Intergalactic Council to see what the Skartian reaction will be. So far their only reaction has been denial so the council is investigation the charges. I've also sent two patrol squadrons to the neutral zone." Jack said giving him the information.
"I don't like this, they are becoming to ambitious for my liking. The Skartians will raise a fuss over the patrol vessels, but I'm glad you sent them. Keep me informed if anything else comes up." The general told Jack and hung up.
The battlecruiser Moscow and her five escorts patrolled around the neutral zone near the dead planet of Gasica. At one time the planet might have been habitable, but now it was barren and dead, and the closest place for a fleet to hide to attack earth.
"Sir!" Ahmed said to the captain.
"What's up?" The captain asked.
"We have some strange signals coming from one of the moons around Gasica." Ahmed replied.
"Any ideas of what it could be?"
"I'm not sure, its kinda fuzzy, but whatever is there is definitely hiding."
"Alert Independence Station of a possible fleet at Gasica." The captain told Ahmed.
Several days later Randall was back in the council room awaiting the results of the committee. He was not sure how the committee would vote and was prepared for anything.
"As promised the committee looked into the dispute between the Skartian and Human races. The Skartians claim that the humans have brought warships into the neutral zone and the humans claim that the Skartians are sending transmissions to Earth.
"We find that both parties involved in this dispute are guilty, the humans for bring their warships to the neutral zone and the Skartian for sending transmissions to earth, even though..." The Skartian ambassador drowned the speaker's voice out. The speaker waited a few seconds before continuing. "As I was saying even though there is not clear evidence of such an action."
Randall waited until the judgment was put through before he complained.
The president stepped up to the podium and gave the judgment. "I hereby decree the judgment of the council is that the human race must remove their fleet at once, and the Skartians are free from any judgment based on the fact that there was not enough evidence against them. Do both parties accept the judge met of the council?" The president said looking at the two ambassadors.
The Skartian ambassador agreed quickly and Randall thought for a minute, then came up with an idea.
"I'll accept on one condition Mr. President. The human race requests that a neutral third-party military, selected by the council, patrol the neutral zone." Randall said with a calm voice.
"Absolutely not!" Yelled the Skartian ambassador. "My government refuses to allow a foreign military presence near our borders, for any reason."
"Why not, afraid that they would pick up the signals that your race is sending to my planet?" Randall replied to the Skartian's outburst.
The Skartian looked around and noticed that everyone in the council was watching the verbal war that was going on. He also knew that the human ambassador was trying to get him to confess to the signals, he would have to try a different tactic. "I will have to talk to my government about this before we can accept."
"Then the humans refuse to accept the council's judgment until the ambassador comes back with his government's response." Randall said, replying to the Skartian's response.
"Then the council will wait for one session for the Skartian response." The president said wearily, as if knowing that perhaps peace between the two races may not last much longer.
"I would also like to ask why there are ships hiding near Gasica, our scout ships have reported activity near there when there should be no activity there at all." Randall asked the council, looking right at the Skartian ambassador.
"Why are you looking at me, we have no ships near Gasica." The Skartian ambassador replied.
"I request that a third party military start patrolling the neutral zone of the human and Skartian boarder immediately." The Ilder ambassador said. "It is clear to me that something is going on and we should all be concerned about it."
"I strongly object to this." The Skartian said.
"Quiet!" The president said, then continued when the voices had died down. "I'm afraid that I do agree with the ambassador from Ilder on this, we will put it up for a vote and go from there."
Jack sat at his desk reading the reports that the translators had brought in. The messages were quite vague, but the theme was that there was going to be some sort of attack on the planet Earth within the next week and to be ready. He had already put the 1st Fleet on condition Alpha, which meant that war was possible at any moment and if fired upon the fleet had permission to return fire. It was the highest alert that Jack had ever put the fleet on since the war ended.
The vague messages left Jack feeling a bit uneasy, and it reminded him of December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the messages then were vague. Where would they strike, and from what direction. These and hundreds other questions were going through his head.
'I'm exhausted!' Jack thought to himself, it had been a long day of reading reports and his eyes were beginning to feel the strain. 'I should just go home, I'm too tired to think straight right now, and I'm probably missing something in my sleep deprived mode.
His secretary buzzed him and jolted him from his half sleep. "Yes?" He asked her.
"Transmission from ambassador Randall, he says it important." His secretary said and she could almost hear Jack's groan and could guess what would come next.
"Can't he talk to Steve instead?" Jack almost whined to her.
"I'm sorry sir, but Steve is unavailable at the moment." She said.
"Ok, put him on." Jack said with a resigned sigh.
"Hello Jack." Randall's voice said trying to sound cordial.
"Let's cut the chit-chat Randall, and just tell me what's so important that it can't wait until Steve gets back?" Jack replied.
"Always blunt, eh Jack." Randall said before continuing. "I needed to tell you some things that the council decided on, one is that we are to move all of our scout ships from the neutral zone."
"That's absurd!" Jack said. "We have confirmed reports that those idiots are posing a threat to earth's security."
"I know!" Randall replied not forgetting that whenever he talked to Jack, he always was a hot head. "There will be a third party military patrolling the zone, the Ilderians have volunteered to patrol the zone, their ships should be there in a couple of hours."
"Fine, but our ships won't leave until the Ilderians ships arrive." Jack said with a bit of finality in it.
"Fine!" Randall said looking like he was going to argue with Jack's statement but decided against it. "I'll let them know." Randall finished then hung up without saying goodbye.
'Figures!' Jack thought to himself. 'Oh, well. At least there will be a military presence and I'll be sure to have the captain of the Moscow tell his replacements to keep an eye on Gasica.' A grin came to his face at the thought of another race detecting something near Gasica, and how the Skartian's would try to explain it. He sent an aide off to deliver the orders then he knew he had to call the general before he retired for the day.
He picked up the phone and dialed the number waiting for the secretary to pick up the phone. "Let me talk to General Ginal, its Admiral Cave." Jack said to the secretary and heard her say just a moment and had to wait a few minutes before the general picked up the phone.
"I take it the council has come back with their verdict on the subject we discussed earlier?" He asked Jack.
"Yep, and for the most part its bad news for us." Jack replied to the general.
"I see!" The general replied not liking the situation one bit.
"The council found no convincing evidence in the transmissions to lay the blame on the Skartians and we have been ordered to remove our patrol ships from the neutral zone."
"That I don't like, the Skartians are up to something." The general said in almost a whisper.
"I agree, the only good news is that there will be a third party military patrolling the neutral zone."
"Oh, who's going to be patrolling the zone?"
"The Ilderians are sending some military ships to the zone to patrol the area, and I'm not having our ships leave until they get there."
"I knew I could count on you and Randall to deal with any situations. Anything else I should know that I should tell the others?"
"Just that the captain of the Moscow picked up some strange reading in the neutral zone near Gasica. I have orders to the captain to report his findings to the commander of the Ilder ships to check out the area."
"Good work, I let them know and let me know if anything else comes up let me know at once." The general said and with that he hung up.
Jack put up the rest of his papers and then told his secretary that he was retiring for the evening.
End Ch2
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