Star Traders

Good afternoon, Mr. President,” Jayne said when she got in touch with him at noon the next day. “I assume you have the document ready to be picked up.”

“Yes, we do,” President Ahern said pleasantly. “It appears to be all in order and perfectly satisfactory.” He was smiling into the camera. “Would you like to come down and pick it up?”

“Well, I’m pretty busy right now with my staff planning the offensive on the backside of the moon. However, I will send a ship down with one of my lieutenants to pick it up. I imagine that would be sufficient?”

President Ahern’s face showed he was not greatly pleased with this turn of events. One of his advisors whispered in his ear.

“My Secretary of Defense says it would be just fine for you to send your man down to pick it up. I assume he will be landing on the south lawn as you did?” President Ahern asked hopefully. He had been told by the Secretary of Defense that it was much more of a priority to get their hands on the ship than it was to capture Jayne.

“That’s as good a place as any. Expect him in about an hour. He will be alone, for these ships need only one person at the helm.”

“Thank you, Captain Rice. We will look forward to meeting him.”

Jayne signed off and turned to Jake.

“OK Jake,” she smiled. “It’s your turn. Take your ship down to the south lawn of the Whitehouse. And drop it on his precious freaking azaleas. Fred and Andy will have troops of their own there to protect you and take you into custody. They have also agreed to have the entire incident recorded. This should spell the end of that pinhead Ahern. If they don’t impeach the jerk, they certainly won’t re-elect him. You have everything you need?”

Jake checked the small device in his shirt pocket. It had a small red button on it. The button was covered to protect it from being depressed by accident. He was not armed, but he was in uniform. The only thing he carried was a small camera to record the action. They did not expect the camera to survive, but it was there for intimidation purposes.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” Jake smiled, relishing his part in the charade that was about to unfold. That he may get hurt in the process only added to the excitement of the moment. Jake was about to land a ship almost identical to the Earth Princess on the south lawn of the Whitehouse. He was going to crush the Presidents azaleas and say “Whoops!” when he walked down the ramp to collect the agreement papers.

He would be taking pictures all the while, sending them up to the Earth Princess 200 miles above the atmosphere. When the troops attacked the ship, he would raise his hands over his head and press the red button on the device in his hand. That would cause a small explosion in the skin of the ship, making a hole in the outer skin some two feet in diameter. This was enough to allow the Gravity Well spread under the skin to escape. The ship would be useless.

“But it will keep the jerk out of our hair while we take care of the invaders,” Jayne had explained. “They will be so busy trying to find out what makes the ship fly they will leave us alone.”

Jake swooped low over the Whitehouse, stopping over the south lawn and slowly descended. He crushed all the azaleas. The ramp was lowered, crushing a few more. Jake walked down the ramp, taking pictures all the way. He looked down at the crushed flowers. “Whoops!” he said, on cue. “I guess I’m not as good as Captain Rice!”

At least 100 troops circled the ships entrance, guns drawn. Jake lifted his hands in the air and pressed the red button. There was a small explosion from the top of the ship and it seemed to settle on the ground, tilting just slightly off center.

Admiral Jenkins and General Atkins were on hand. They took charge of Jake and hustled him away quickly. The President appeared and smiled as his men took over the ship, climbing the ramp with guns drawn.

“That should settle the hash of that bitch!” he was heard to say. That too, was recorded.

Jake disappeared from captivity within 2 hours. No one knew where he had gone. Lodge 16 and Personal Securities covered his tracks. No less than 12 of their men were involved. They covered for one another, blaming others for the mix-up. They were very adept at it. They had had a lot of practice. After all, they had been infiltrating the upper echelons of the government for 50 years or more.

“I thought I was going to pee my britches again when you said Whoops!” Jayne told Jake when he arrived aboard the Earth Princess some four hours later. “I can just see it now! He’s having those men of his trying to unravel the drive of that ship, and it’s gone! They could be there for days! We’ll let them simmer a bit before letting them know they’ve been had. In the meantime, we have some planning to do.”

“Think we should call and complain to the Whitehouse about the confiscation of one of our ships?” Lars asked.

“Great idea, Lars!” Jayne grinned. “In fact, it might be to our advantage to destroy the ship on the ground there to show that we can do it with impunity!

“Get him on the horn!” she commanded her communications officer.

“Ahern! You are an idiot!” Jayne said as the President answered her call. “I protest your capturing one of my ships and detaining one of my crew!”

“Protest all you like, Captain Rice,” Ahern told her. “The result will be the same. “We have a ship and one of your crew.”

Jayne had decided not to destroy the ship. Someone could get seriously hurt or killed. She didn’t trust Ahern to clear the ship of soldiers even if she warned him. It wasn’t the fault of the soldiers they had to take the ship. It was that idiot Ahern.

“You won’t have my man for long. In fact, unless I’m mistaken, he’s already on the way here.” Jayne knew he was. Hell, she’d just been talking to him!

“And don’t expect to learn anything from the ship either. We have taken steps to make the ship useless to you. But please; go ahead and try!” She signed off.

Twenty two ships and crews were available for the coming battle with the invaders. They were the only ships available that had the necessary equipment to drop into Hyperlink. Over the next two days they trained crews for reloading the SAM missiles in the launchers aboard the ships. They were ready on the third day. Jayne got them all on the screen for a final conference.

“Jake, I’d like you to take sixteen of our ships and see what damage you can do on the back side of the moon. I’ll take the other six and do the same in the Amazon and the Congo. Just feel them out some to see what they have and what our best defense will be. Give it 24 hours. We should have some idea by then.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Jake gave her a small salute. “I’ll take the Enterprise and Armageddon with me too!” Those two ships had experienced crews.

“Go for it!” Jayne said. “And good luck!”

That left the Earth Princess and five other vessles that were quite inexperienced to harass the invaders at the Amazon and Congo.

Jayne had a new communications officer aboard. Kevin LaPorte was the son of a member of Lodge 16. Jayne had been assured he knew his stuff.

“Get the President on the line, Kevin. I’m sure he’s waiting for our call.”

President Ahern came on immediately, a dark look on his face.

“Good morning, Mr. President!” Jayne said pleasantly. “I trust you have had a relaxing two days?”

Ahern just looked at her for a moment, trying to decide just what salutation he should use for Jayne.

“Captain Rice,” he nodded.

“Have you found anything interesting in the ship I gave you?” she laughed.

“You know we’ve found nothing. I don’t know how you got it down here and then sabotaged it yet, but we will find out,” Ahern scowled.

“No, Ahern,” Jayne shook her head. “You won’t find out at all. You can’t even find the batteries that run the lights. That’s the last word we have here. You can have the ship as long as you want, or we can come down and take it off your hands anytime. Your call, there.

“We’re about to launch our attack on the Congo landing today. Tomorrow we will do the same with the Amazon. Two things you must do. One: Have all troops pull back from both fronts. We don’t need collateral damage and neither do you. Second: Ground all flights around the world until further notice. That means military as well as civilian flights. We plan to blast anything out of the air during those days. We’d hate to bring down one of our own. By the way, I still expect delivery of the signed trade agreement.”

Ahern was sputtering.

“Oh be quiet!” Jayne said. “We have video and audio of everything that went on when you attacked my ship and captured it. You will do what I say or we’ll release it to the press. Oh yes! Sorry abut your azaleas!” She broke contact.