Resolution (9 page)

Mark entered her terminal number into his comm unit. It rang once. "What's up Handsome?" Gloria answered.

"Henry wanted me to let you know that Mary and Chloe will be here in about a half hour. Think you can take a break to see your old friends?" Mark asked grinning.

"Smart ass, you know damn good and well I've been busting my ass for the last month so I could spend some time with them when they arrived. If anything unexpected comes up, my assistant knows where I'll be," Gloria replied. "Oh, I wanted to thank you for assigning 'The Zulu's' to me for search and rescue operations. I know it's been a year and the odds of finding survivors are almost non-existent, but we need all the help we can get in the fringe and border areas."

"No problem, Love. I know you've been worried about those folks out there. Besides, it would be doing what you want it to do anyway, so they might as well work for you for a while," Mark replied.

"Well, be that as it may, I know the decision to give half our Navy to John and the Guardians left us short on ships. I appreciate it," Gloria said. "Did you get the transportation report yet? We got our part of it out to them yesterday morning, and Carla, uh, Minister Harris, said she would get it compiled and out to you as soon as she could," Gloria asked.

"Yes, Harry just told me it's available. I should give it a look over before our guests arrive. Why don't you head home to change and I'll meet you at the landing field in a few minutes?" Mark asked.

"Ha!" Gloria replied. "I took a page out of your book and have been keeping a set of formal clothes in my office. Still we only have about fifteen minutes, so I'll get changed and meet you there."

"Okay love, see ya in a few minutes," Mark said and closed the connection. He pulled up the rather large report file and sighed. He wouldn't even be able to skim through it in time. Using his implant, he copied out the last few pages of the report, the part with all the 'bottom lines' in it and loaded it into his memory unit. Then he grabbed a energy bar and entered Mr. Ford's office where the diligent man made sure Mark was presentable before having his guards escort him to the landing field.

––––––––

T
he Guardian
Flyer
had already landed by the time Mark made it to the landing field. Gloria had beaten him, but only by a few seconds. It had been almost a year since the last visit by the group and during that time there had been a world of changes made. That fact was underscored by the fact that they were meeting back on the Kingdom's Capitol world. The last time Mark had seen John face to face was at the command module at Xanadu.

Armored guards left the ship first to take up position at the foot of the ship's ramp. Next followed Mary in a pristine white uniform of the Guardian Medical Service. Behind her was Chloe in a slightly darker uniform of the Guardian Command Division. Finally, John himself left the ship wearing the same uniform as Chloe, but with a gold braid looped under his left arm denoting him as the supreme commander of the Guardian Forces.

The
Flyer
itself had undergone a rather dramatic makeover. Gone was the shiny, gray metal of the Kingdom designed stealth system. It had been replaced with a stark white paint job with a blaze orange stripe on all wing and fins. Although slightly larger, it was still a stealth vessel; in fact it was most likely more so now that it had been rebuilt with Promethean technology. It had a few more gun ports and a larger missile battery, but it was still a ship devoted to peace.

Several of the ships that had been given over to the Guardians were undergoing a similar transformation at their super-secret shipyard in the Gamma quadrant. Following John off the ship was probably the most drastic change of all. Dressed in the off-white uniform of the Guardians, Shal'mar Tardeinne left the ship looking around himself in awe and wonder. Guardian Tardeinne was of the Tammerain and had been one of the first Guardians recruited from the races of the Tammerain.

Mark sensed his guards stiffen when they saw the last person to disembark. "Relax you guys! He's a Guardian! You will treat him with the same respect you treat me or John with or I'll dismiss you
right fucking now
, understood?"

"But Sire, he's a
Tammerain
!" one of the guard said.

"No, he's a
Guardian
! He surrendered his nationality when he joined them. You will treat him with the same courtesy and respect you give any of the Guardians out there. Is that understood?" Mark said making damn sure they did understand him. "If any of you cannot do that, then you need to leave now."

"Sire, with respect," the commander of the guard, a seasoned, newly promoted officer, bowed to Mark and turned to his detail. "Murry! Evens, you are dismissed! Return to the Barracks immediately!"

By now, John and his party had made it into the terminal and had witnessed the dismissing of the guards. The guard lieutenant turned and saluted the newcomers. "Pardon the interruption, Prime Guardian. Could I trouble you to borrow two of your guards until our replacements arrive?"

"We would be honored, Lieutenant," John replied and turned back to Guardian Tardeinne. "Please have two guardians suit up and report to the terminal for guard duty."

While they'd been talking the girls all greeted each other with hugs and quiet words.

Shal'mar bobbed his head. "At once Prime!" he turned slightly away and issued orders on his internal comm device.

"You enhanced the Tammerain Guardians?" Mark asked. He wasn't upset, he'd just been surprised by the realization.

John nodded. "Yes, they have been enhanced, but not in the same way we were enhanced. This is a new set-up developed by Mary and her folks using Promethean tech. Most of them don't need much, just the healing bots, communicators and interface units. In the Guardians; we are all equals."

"Well, some of you have a bit more experience than others," Gloria said grinning.

"True, as well as more responsibility in our positions. However, we try to make it's as equal as we can," John replied. "You both look well, how's the reconstruction going?"

Mark grinned. "Very well thanks to you and the Guardians. Hell, just the use of the transit points is all but invaluable. But those repair units you sent are truly wonders. I don't think anyone ever thought of using a repair ship in that fashion. It's just amazing what those monsters can do in a short amount of time."

"I was impressed with them as well. Even the new base at Bethel's Anvil is finished. Aside from a few impact craters, that planet is almost completely back to normal. In fact, I've already reassigned the repair unit to another world," John said.

A repair unit was really a small fleet that traveled together. The main part of the unit was a huge ship that had ore refineries, smelters, processors, and all the heavy industrial units needed to build almost anything. In addition to several smaller mining vessels that kept the main unit in materiel for the project it was doing. Thousands of small robots did a lot of the work, retrieving finished materiel from the ship, placing it and joining it to the rest of the building facility or ship that was being built.

If the construction was underground, like the Guardian Base was, the robots could also dig and mine all without risking lives during the process.  The ship that was used at Bethel's Anvil had been there for most of the year, digging out and clearing the underground cities, as well as rebuilding the smaller surface communities and converting the Johnstown facility into a very nice, very large Base and Medical Facility complete with a fully functional bio-molecular unit equivalent to what The Center was before the war on Centauri Prime.

By the request of the Planetary Governor, John had also directed the unit to build a huge university complex with the intention to open it to all races of the Galaxy. John thought it was a grand idea, and spoke to Selnia about finding a suitable administrator for it.

She recommended a Clan leader from the far side of the Empire that was renowned for her wisdom and had extreme administrative abilities. But she also recommended one of her sister’s relocate to the facility to assist in its formation and administration.

The Sentient AI was more than happy to accept the offer from John. She had been built as a much smaller version of Selnia and took up a low orbit over the planet. Convincing the Clan Matriarch to accept the position was a bit more difficult. She was of a race that was very human like in appearance but much smaller as well as having fully functional, prehensile tails. Her race had not taken part in the war because they had no interest in warcraft and lacked any ability at all in that area. Her race had known violence in the far distant past, but no longer even considered it an option when dealing with others.

When John explained to her that one of the main purposes of the new academy would be to foster peace and work to prevent war though the cooperative pursuit of knowledge. She agreed to accept the position provided her people and the Tammerain leadership approved. The new Empress agreed to the appointment as part of a farther-reaching agreement to help the Kingdom recover from the damage of the war. A portion of the Tammerain War fleets was also given over to the Guardians as part of that agreement. Ironically, it had become easier to recruit new Guardians from the Tammerain than it was from the humans.

Mark smiled at his friends. "Well, welcome back. You're just in time for lunch!"

––––––––

I
t had taken some doing, but Mark had met with the new Empress of the Tammerain. The first thing she did was express the profound apologies of her people for the damage they had done to the humans. When she offered reparations, Mark was floored by the amount of support she offered. He found the new leader of the Tammerain Empire to be a very personable and friendly being. He was surprised when he learned that she was almost four hundred years old herself.

Through the use of Promethean technology, the two leaders virtually toured several worlds that had seen heavy fighting. Although they could not interact with the people moving around the ruins, the damage had been very apparent. The experience had a profound effect on both of the leaders as the tour led them to the remains of a destroyed apartment building. On what was left of the sidewalk in front of the building, flowers and several small shrines as well as pictures of those that had died in the building had been placed. Kneeling before the group of shrines, a small girl was on her knees crying as she held a holograph of a young woman, her mother.

The Empress got to her knees beside the girl and cried as well.

The scene touched Mark. "I've been a soldier for most of my life. I've never gotten... This is a very common scene during war. A long time ago, on my home world of Earth, a wise man once said in war, there are no winners or losers; there are only survivors."

The Empress could only nod her agreement as she tried to recompose herself and continue the tour. In her mind, she was horrified that her people had done this. "Mark, no matter what else we do, or how we guide our nations, we must never allow this to happen again."

"I agree Mar'shallis. Conflict may become unavoidable, but we should strive to prevent it whenever we can, but most importantly, keep it away from the civilians. They have done nothing to deserve this," Mark said softly.

"On that, you will always have my agreement. Although I would be tempted to argue that no one deserves this." 

As they continued, the two leaders talked and learned more about the other. Trust might not have happened, but an understanding of the other leader was discovered. They would try to talk issues over before resulting to violence.

Before they parted, Mark was teasing her about being a young woman and she was teasing him about being older than the Prometheans. They had parted on good terms. If not as friends, then as close to being friends as their positions would allow. Mark honestly liked her and enjoyed her company during the talks.

However, not all the citizens of the two nations were as forgiving or as understanding as the two leaders had been. Mostly on the border worlds groups met in secret and resolved to make the Tammerain pay for the murder of their loved ones. They felt that what Mark was working towards with the Tammerain was a betrayal and much of their anger was directed at him as well.

Surprisingly enough, not all of the dissidents were on border worlds. In the heart worlds there were those that detested the new peace with the Tammerain. Those people that had attained considerable power and wealth due to the military buildup resented the loss that this new peace brought them. Supposed 'Nobles' and powerful businessmen were more than happy to funnel their excess weapons and munitions out to the border worlds. It was easy enough to do, there were ships leaving for the border every hour. The ships carrying arms for the dissidents simply hid in among the ships carrying much needed supplies and material.

During the year that had passed, the dissidents had amassed a considerable arsenal of weapons, but they lacked one very important asset they needed in order to carry out their war of vendetta, ships. They needed transportation into Tammerain space that could not be detected. After the summit between the two leaders, Tammerain supply ships had been allowed access to human space in order to deliver cargos of food, equipment and rare metals.

Several assaults were staged to capture these ships or failing that, to destroy them. The Dissidents vowed that no alien would ever set foot on a human world again.

On the border world of Sargasso, a major shipping node for the border worlds in their sector, four Tammerain heavy freighters landed and began unloading their cargo with the help of the human cargo handlers that worked there. Unknown to the Tammerain ships, the human helpers were not the normal ground force that unloaded cargo. While they unloaded the cargo, several of the men and women slipped aboard the ships and killed the crews.

Once finished unloading, one of the ships was reloaded with troop’s vehicles and weapons while the other three left for other planets to pick up their lethal cargos before returning to Tammerain space. Since the planets were close by, and the flight controllers for each planet were part of the rebel group, no one noticed that the Tammerain ships had gone to other worlds; or that they were not empty when they left those worlds.