Seamus Finnigan,
star reporter for the New Belfast Times, leaned against the cold
dingy red brick wall disappearing into the long shadows cast by the
street lights. He had one hand clutching to his tattered leather
brief case stuffed full of printouts and the other held an old green
bandana against the gun shot wound in his side. His fingers becoming
sticky as more blood seeped through the bandana. He knew that no
periodical on Nuadh Eire would publish what he had found. They had
all been bought out right or compromised in less than civilized ways.
He had been
running and bleeding since they had ambushed him at Merchants Quay.
Seamus knew it was a minor miracle that he had gotten away, but he
had managed to give them the slip on the poorly lit streets of New
Dublin and get on a cross town train. He also knew that he was very
tired and had lost a lot of blood. It was only two more blocks and
then across Clanbassil St. to make it to the Confederate Embassy.
From the Confederate Embassy he could get an off-world news agency to
publish his story, maybe something on New Caledonia or High Wales. He
tried to block out the pain and stumbled down the road, leaving a
small pool of blood on the pavement behind.
It was 4am when
Seamus collapsed in the middle of Clanbassil Street. His dying gasp
for help brought two of the Confederate embassy guards running out
into the deserted street, they slung their G.A.R-17s grabbed Seamus
and carried him quickly into the embassy grounds, to the embassy’s
well equipped infirmary. While they waited Sgt. Hassan military
training kicked in and he started looking for intelligence, he looked
through the tattered and stained brown leather briefcase and he took
Seamus’s flash drive off of his bracelet. That along with Seamus’s
PDA he turned over to the embassy’s chief of intelligence, Col.
Tarik Mubarak.
While Col. Mubarak
started to go through the computer printouts they had found in
Seamus’s briefcase, Seamus died on the operating table, leaving a
lot of questions behind.
Col.
Tarik Mubarak and the rest of his twelve-man intelligence unit went
painstakingly over all of the printed material, as well as all of the
information on the PDA and in the flash drive. They were all puzzled
at first for no one was using Seamus as an informant and none of the
documents were Nuadh Eire government documents. All of the
information that he had carried seemed to be business memos, business
press releases, accounting information for various business, as well
as building and star ship designs.
Over
the next few days they started to piece together what the information
was trying to tell them. It turned out that the Blue Sun Corporation
owned all all of the companies that they had information on. They all
knew that the Blue Sun Corporation had saved Nuadh Eire 23 years ago,
from civil war over the abortion issue, when it had invented the
growth tanks and its young president Dr. Karen O’Brien had come up
with the fetus transfer procedure, making the entire point moot. The
planetary government had wholeheartedly endorsed the procedure and
the Blue Sun Corporation had overnight become one of the wealthiest
corporations in the Star System.
The
Blue Sun Corporation then branched out into running children’s
homes and orphanages. The homes and orphanages were paid for
through government
grants and
private donations. Tens of thousands of children were born from the
tanks the first several years, in later years the numbers reached
into the hundreds of thousands. The more children born meant more and
more money for the Blue Sun Corp., which they invested into star ship
building, weapons company, textiles and agriculture. The Confederate
Intel unit was shocked to realize that the Blue Sun Corp. controlled
nearly a third of the wealth of the Nuadh Eire star system.
The
Intel unit brought in a forensic accountant who was able to start and
find discrepancies in the books. At first they were thinking that it
was a simple case of corporate fraud and that they should simply turn
everything they had found over to the Garda Siochana, the Nuadh Eire
planetary police, but then they came across evidence of acts that
could tear Nuadh Eire society apart.
The
Number of fetuses transferred into the tanks and the number of births
were not matching up. They realized there was a small percentage of
babies that did not survive to full term, but even with that factored
in the numbers did not add up. They realized in horror as they went
through more of the information that fetuses, which did not fall with
in certain genetic parameters were being terminated. With the huge
numbers of children being born every year from the tanks, the several
thousand being terminated fell through the cracks and with most of
the orphanages off world no one noticed the fact that none of the
children there were suffering from any handicaps.
Lt
Zainab Uthman noted as she studied the plans for one of the
orphanages that the area marked as a playground looked an awfully a
lot like the obstacle course she ran when she was at the advanced
combat school on
New Malaysia. She also noted the firing range that all the orphanages
that the Blue Sun Corp. ran had.
Memo
to Confederate Intel Command: Possibility of a private army numbering
in the hundred thousands possible millions in the Nuadh Eire star
system, Extremely High. Use for such an army could be for a coup
attempt in a very similar vein to the clone conspiracy back on the
earth in the late 15th century. We will continue to
monitor the situation.
The
Embassy Intel unit continued to find more and more information that
led them to the conclusion that the Blue Sun Corp. was planning on
seizing control of the star system. The cost over runs for the
building of new warships for the navy seemed to be covering the fact
they had actually built several more warships. And the most worrisome
evidence was that many top ranking officers in the Garda Siochana and
Nuadh Eire defense forces had their spouses on the payroll of the
Blue Sun Corp.
An
extensive report was written up by the Intel Unit this along with
copies of all the information that Seamus had given his life to get
them, was sent by diplomatic pouch to Confederate Intelligence
headquarters back on New Malaysia. While waiting for a reply to come
back, the leader of Nuadh Eire, The Taoiseach was assassinated on his
country farm. The Coup had begun.
Ambassador
Mansur Al-Zawahri Stood watching troop transports landing at various
strategic sites throughout the capitol city from the embassyÂ’s
rooftop garden. He wore the new dark blue with gold trim shalwar
kameez that his sister had sent him from Kashmir prime. The Kashmir
Tiger roses were in bloom, their orange and black flowers the size of
dinner plates. Ambassador Al-Zawahri had brought them from his
familyÂ’s home back on Kashmir Prime and had planted them himself.
He had given several away in pots to the nodeceaseded Taoiseach and
to several members of the Oireachtas, the legislative branch of Nuadh
EireÂ’s government, he had recently been informed that all members
of the Oireachtas had been placed under house arrest.
When
the coup had started tintelligencence unit had to inform the
Ambassador that the self-proclaimed Blue Sun QueenÂ’s, Dr. Karen
OÂ’Brien head of the Blue Sun Corporation, military was much
larger than they had ever suspected and while most of the soldiers
appeared to be 14 or 16 years old the assault rifles that they
carried were quite real and you would be just as dead if they shot
you as you would be if shot by an older soldier. Also as they had
feared top ranking miliofficersciers had apparently been bought off
and many of them had been given various titles, Sir this, Baron that
and Duke who ever, and put in charge of various regions of Nuahd
Eire. One military base seemed to be a site of fighting but it was
brief.officersciers loyal to the republic seemed unable to launch any
type of resistance.
The
Embassy grounds were jammed with over two thousand Confederate
citizens whom had either been studying, Visiting or doing business on
Nuadh Eire when the coup had been launched. There were also nearly a
hundred locals whom had asked for asylum including two members of the
Oireachtas and their families. All of the locals had made it to the
embassy before the blue army had parked several
armored vehicles around
the Confederate embassy. While the embassy guards were on high alert
and carrying loaded weapons, they assured the Ambassador that it
seemed to them that the new blue army was trying to stop local people
from getting to the embassy for sanctuary. They noted that the
armored vehicles weapons were all pointed away from the embassy and
that all confederate citizens had been stopped and questioned but
allowed to continue on to the embassy.
After
two days Ambassador Mansur Al-Zawahri and various other ambassadors
were invited to an informal dinner and meeting with the Blue Sun
Queen. Ambassador Al-Zawahri was told to inform her that the
confederation viewed the change in power on Nuadh Eire as an internal
matter of the citizens of Nuadh Eire and one that they should resolve
on their own.
Rumi,
"Mathnawi" [IV, 1640]
If in the darkness of
ignorance,
you don’t recognize a person’s true nature,
look
to see whom he has chosen for his leader.
-Rumi, "Mathnawi"
[IV, 1640]
Fleet
Admiral Megan O’Brien of the Blue Navy, at 19 was younger than any
of the ship captains left over from the Republican navy. Yet she
stood on the bridge of the battleship HMS Slaugh Ron brimming with
confidence for she knew that she was a daughter of the Blue Sun Queen
and that she was born to lead. She walked across the bridge to the
command chair and flipped her long bright red ponytail forward over
her shoulder as she sat down. She knew that this was where they
rolled the dice. Fleet Admiral Megan O’Brien’s stomach did a
flip-flop as she ordered that a wormhole to the New Tibet Star System
be opened. She looked about the bridge; every position manned by one
of her younger brothers or sisters and said loudly “Victory is our
destiny.” The bridge exploded into exploded into cheers as the
fleet plunged into the wormhole and slid towards the New Tibet
System.
After
much pleading the palace guards got the Dalai Lama to flee the
capitol as they were rightly convinced that the invading fleet would
bomb the temple palace. The inhabitants of New Tibet watched in
disbelief as the blue fleet easily destroyed the meager fleet that
the New Tibet star system had. A fleet designed to stop smugglers and
rescue merchant vessels; it was no match for the heavy cruisers and
battleships of the Blue navy.
Muhammed
Nasrullah and Bijan Khomeini from the balcony of the teahouse as
Nuadh Eire transports bearing the logo of the Blue Sun Queen
dislodged large numbers of heavily armed soldiers. They had arrived
in the city by a nearly empty train six hours before The Nuadh Eire
Assault troops had arrived. The two members of the brotherhood of the
golden circle had left the large mountain retreat that their order
maintained in the cedars district when the Dalai Lama had arrived.
Their assignment a simple one, gather information on the activities
and plans of the occupation force.
Everyone
was shocked by the invasion as New Tibet and Nuadh Eire had excellent
trade and diplomatic relations. The invasion was all the teahouse
patrons were talking about. Muhammed and Bijan finished their tea and
went to the small cramped apartment that
they were staying in. Muhammed brought their clothes down to the
small laundry on the first floor of the old red brick building next
to their apartment building. Nasrullah got a whiff of their clothes
and gagged; their first few hours in the city had been spent in the
sewers taping into the communication cables.
Bijan
sat down and opened up his laptop and started to check the different
cable taps they had installed. Any and all conversations in Gallic
would be automatically recorded and sorted by their A.I.
Both
Bijan and Muhammed had been chosen for this assignment because the
two of them could pass for locals in both appearance and fluency in
Tibetan. The two had gone to university together
back on New Malaysia. Neither of them could speak Gallic and were
trying to studying it as if there were cramming for a final exam. The
A.I. had not yet caught any conversations in Gallic yet, Bijan
figured the occupation force was still only using their radios.
A
knock at the door startled him out of his train of thought and after
quickly hiding away his laptop he walked across the small living room
and opened up the old worn out wooden door. A small middle-aged
Tibetan woman wearing traditional Tibetan clothes stood there smiling
it was Mrs. Khangsar Yangchen Dolma, which was how she introduced
herself when they moved in followed by a quick but just call me
Khangsar, she owned the building and as a widow with two small
daughters the rent on the apartments was how she supported her
family.
“Mr.
Khomeini would you and Mr. Nasrullah like to come for dinner tonight?
With all this bedlam going on the girls and I would rather have some
company” she said.
“We
would be honored,” replied Bijan“Great come by around eight”
she said and with that walked back down the rickety stairs to the
first floor apartment she shared with her two small daughters and
three large cats.
Reported by Abu Umamah
Once a person asked the
Prophet, "What is true faith?"
The Prophet replied,
"When your good endeavors bring you pleasure and your
transgressions cause you anguish, you know that you are a person of
faith."
-Reported by Abu Umamah
Later
that evening Muhammed and Bijan sat down at their landlord’s dining
room table with her and her daughters for a traditional Tibetan meal.
Khangshar, as she insisted on them calling her, served Momos,
dumplings stuffed with ground yak meat mixed with chopped onions,
cilantro, ginger and garlic these were steamed then eaten with hot
sauce. She also put out bowls of Tsampa, roasted barley flour with
tea poured over it and just a tad of yak butter added all of which
they ate with their hands. They drank butter tea with the meal and as
it was summer ate Sikarni, a spiced sweet yogurt-pistachio dessert at
the end of the meal.
All
during the meal they talked about the events of the last several
days. The girls were excited and scared. All of the schools in
the city had been closed for the remainder of the week; the girls
were please by this but their mother would not let them leave the
house so they were feeling trapped. They discussed the fact that the
Dalai Lama had fled new Lhasa and gone into hiding that he had called
on the people to meet the invaders with non-violent resistance. While
at the same time Generals Loten Namling and Tenzin Gonpo ordered the
Army into the countryside evacuating all the military bases and had
pledged to fight a guerrilla war against the invaders. Everyone at
the dinner table expressed shock at how young the Fleet Admiral Megan
O’Brien looked. They were sure she could not be older than 19 or 20
years of age. And yet from the video announcements made she seemed to
be the person in charge. They were also surprised by how quickly the
Blue Sun queen had launched an attack on them as she had only just
consolidated power on Nuadh Eire. The evening broke up rather late
with Bijan promising to teach the girls how to play Go later in the
week. They all went to bed knowing that they had friends in the
building.
While
they slept several Confederate Abtu class recon
ships slid into the New Tibet star System and very rapidly deployed
hundreds of the newest version of the Jibra’il spy satellites
through out the star system. The confederate ships then just as
secretly as they had entered the system exited minus one, which
stayed behind to monitor the spy satellites.
"Remain
patient in adversity, for surely God's promise is true. And do not
let those, who themselves have no certainty of faith, shake your
firmness."The Holy Quran, 30:60
For
weeks Muhammed and Bijan’s routine was the same, they woke up for
fajr and made dhiker until curfew was lifted. Then they went out to
have tea and breakfast in attempts to talk with soldiers whom were
part of the occupation force in New Lhasa. They pretended to be
trying to get help with learning Gallic,
which wasn’t too hard as they were still learning the language, and
would try to find out anything they could from the soldiers. While
some of the soldiers were older men late 20s early thirties most of
the soldiers including the officers were in there early and mid
teens. Baby faced killers who obeyed orders without every questioning
them. They bought them soft drinks and/or breakfast in exchange for
Gallic lessons. Then one day at the teahouse nearest the blue army’s
barracks Bijan heard two officers practicing phrases in Farsi.
Bijan
walked across the brightly colored tile floor of the teahouse and up
to the two soldiers. Their table was covered with the remains of
their breakfast, several notebooks and two Farsi grammar
books.
“Excuse
me sirs, could I buy you fine gentlemen tea in exchange for speaking
with me?” asked Bijan. This was a standard phrase used by young
people in the city trying to learn the language of their
conquerors.
“Sorry
boy not today” replied the one who looked as if he was perhaps
fifteen.
Over
the next few days Bijan observed more and more of the officers
practicing with Farsi phrase books.
“Are
you sure it is Farsi?” asked Muhammed as he poured tea at the small
granite top table in their kitchen.
“My
Grandfather was a Farsi speaker. He was originally from Khorasan
mining colony in the Farsistan star system, before he immigrated to
New Malaysia.” Answered Bijan shoveling sugar into his tea.
“New
Persia is the closest star system it would make some sort of sense,
but New Persia is a member of the Confederation. The Blue Sun Queen
would be mad to go to war with the Confederation.” Said
Muhammed.
“The
woman had her ovaries removed and all her eggs fertilized and had
several hundred children born out of growth tanks. Does that sound
like the actions of somebody who is sane?”
“I’ll
get word to the embassy about our suspicions. It will be up to people
higher up than us to act on this information.”
The
spy satellites deployed through out the new Tibet star system along
with spies on Nuadh Eire were able to confirm that the Blue Sun Queen
did indeed intend to invade the New Persia star system.
Admiral
Hassan Al-Sadr sat in his room on the Bahamut class battleship
the C.S.S. Malikal Mawt with the latest best selling murder mystery
from New Malaysia on his lap. While the Confederate navy knew where
the blue navy was going to attack, they were still not sure of the
exact timing of the attack. So Admiral Al-Sadr sat with the fourth
and fifth fleet hiding in New Persia’s largest gas giant waiting
for the signal to attack. He wondered if he would finish the book
before the Blue navy arrived.
Confederate
Carriers had ferried over 200 Buraq fighters to New Persia Prime and
automated defense satellites had been deployed around both of New
Persia Prime’s moons as they had vital mining colonies on them. A
second wave of ships sat in the New Kurdistan Star System waiting to
slide into the New Persia Star System and trap the blue navy.
The
Confederate fleet had been waiting for six days on high alert,
Admiral Al-Sadr was worried that the men would lose their edge and
that Nuadh Eire intelligence would learn of the ambush that awaited
them. He was two thirds through his murder mystery and was rather
sure he knew exactly who had done it. He had cancelled the day’s
combat drill and was realizing that his cabin was a mess. A half
eaten plate of humus, chickpea dip, and pita bread cluttered
the small
coffee table.
An open tin of his wife’s home made Kataifi Ashta, a delicate
custard filled pastry, sat on his work desk. He knew he was eating
too much because of the stress of waiting.
“Why
don’t they just attack already?” he asked the empty cabin
Ten
minutes later while he was trying to clean up his work
desk,
there was a buzz on his intercom and the second officer of the C.S.S.
Malikul Mawt started talking very excitedly and informed him that the
Jabri’l spy satellites scattered through out the star system had
detected the simultaneous opening of several worm holes and had
identified the ships coming through them as the Blue navy. The
navigation officer had plotted the route the blue navy was appeared
to be taking and estimated that they would pass be passing by the gas
giant that the confederate navy was hiding in, in a little over 12
hours.
“Admiral
O’Brien we have incoming missiles “shouted the first officer of
the battleship Slaugh Ron. She looked at the lidar screen and saw
that it did indeed show missiles and Ships emerging from the largest
gas giant in the new Persia star system. The blue fleet had
positioned themselves so that the gas giant was between them and new
Persia prime with the idea that
by approaching from behind the gas giant they would be able to
approach their objective undetected most of the way. Now it was
obvious to Admiral O’Brien and most of the blue fleet officers that
the entire operation had been compromised.
The
long range sensors officer then informed her that they had detected
the simultaneous opening multiple worm holes and that 2 confederate
___ carriers had emerged along with three battleships and several
light cruisers. This cut off their and these confederate ships were
moving to intercept them. Deciding that if she could not capture the
Hyton crystal mines that she would destroy them, Admiral O’Brien
ordered the blue fleet forward to New Persia prime at full
speed.
Admiral
Al-Sadr stood on the battle bridge of the C.S.S. Malikul Mawt
listening to the fire control officers repeating the basmallah over
and over again as they pressed the firing buttons for the ship’s
missiles launchers. The Confederate ships concentrated fire on one
Nuadh Eire ship at a time which allowed them to easily overwhelm the
anti-missile defenses of the Nuadh Eire ships. In quick order the
battleships The Amadaun, the Cuchullain and the Fragarach were
destroyed; as the blue fleet made a desperate charge towards New
Persia Prime it ran into the hundreds of Buraq fighters that stood
waiting. In less than 24 hours from the beginning of the battle the
invading blue fleet was destroyed.
The
confederate fleet spent the next few days rounding up prisoners from
the life pods that
had managed to eject from the destroyed enemy fleet. Even though they
had been told how young the enemy soldiers and sailors were many of
the confederate officers expressed shock as they took in
prisoners.
The
confederate fleet in the new Persia star system was reinforced by
three more battleships, the C.S.S. Issau, the C.S.S. Ayoub and the
C.S.S. Musa, several days after the battle and then made 2 slides,
the last bringing them into the Nuadh Eire star system to have a show
down with the Blue Sun Queen’s forces only to find out that she had
fled the star system with several dozen ships and several thousand of
her followers. The confederates learned that when word of the defeat
at New Persia arrived that it sparked an open rebellion among the
population.
The
Blue Sun Queen had been in power for less than a full year and yet
had caused the deaths of millions on and off Nuadh Eire. With the
Republic restored, the Oireachtas confiscated the Blue Sun
Corporation’s entire asset and put all of their orphanages under
direct government control.
