Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth (46 page)

At first, we thought Tibby was one of the Brotherhood as we watched and followed him.  However, soon we learned that the Brotherhood was his enemy also. Tibby saw our plight, and while his need to find the eggs was great, so that he might save his mate Kalana, he took time to free us from the Brotherhood.  He destroyed their buildings and many of their ships; some ships he kept and he put his own people on them.  They now guard my world using those very same ships to protect us from the return of the Brotherhood and to ensure we will never be slaves again.  For this reason my people have named him the Man-Who-Speaks-for-Thumumba; he speaks for all our people and represents our people and their wishes in all matters that involve other worlds.”  Then Regata turned and walked back to his seat.  I noted Admiral Regeny look about with a sense of frustration and I realized he was looking for the still missing Commander Wabussie.  Slowly the Admiral got up and returned to the podium.

“Since some of your senators and diplomats were aboard the starships that pursued some of the Brotherhood ships back to Alle Bamma, I know you are aware of all that Regata has related and can give testimony to those events.  As for what happened at Goo’Waddle, you have already heard Tibby’s explanations during questioning by Leader Roritat yesterday, but I think hearing from someone from Goo’Waddle about what happened will help you in your judgment of Tibby.

“I wish to introduce you to Jenira; she was born and raised on Goo’Waddle, and she will testify to what transpired there when Tibby arrived.  Jenira doesn’t speak but uses Federation sign language to communicate.  However, the computers connected to the vid screen will convert her signing into a synthetic voice for those who do not understand Federation sign language.”  The Admiral walked over to his seat and Jenira rose and walked to the podium; she stood tall and was dressed in a black dignitary outfit that I am sure Kala had chosen for her.  It seemed strange seeing her without her swords, but I knew they would not allow her to bring them into the Senate hearing hall.”

“Honored Justice, and Senators of the Federation,” Jenira began signing as the computer translated her gestures into a soothing female voice.  “My name is Jenira, I was born and raised on Goo’Waddle.  Until Tibby came to Goo’Waddle, I had never been off the planet and knew little of other worlds or customs.  When I was 10 years-old, men from the Brotherhood came to our home with a government official on the planet.  They said my father owed them money; my father could not pay the money so my eight-year-old brother and I, as well as my mother, were taken as slaves of the Brotherhood until such time as my father could pay the debt.  My brother and I were sold as sex slaves to a prostitution house where men came seeking young children.  Tanden, my brother, was in a house next to mine, and while at times we might get glimpses of each other over a wall or through a window, we were not allowed to speak to each other.  We were both given drugs to slow down our aging process because as young children we were more marketable and the financial reward to the Brotherhood was greater.  The drugs worked better on me than on my brother, who still showed signs of aging but at a slower pace than he would have normally.  Eventually, he grew too large to be desired by the men who sought out male children for sex and he was sold to another Brotherhood drug cartel to harvest the plant used for God’s Sweat, which they had recently started to grow and harvest on our planet.”

“Tanden was forced to work in a field on the calgana next to the estate house where Tibby and his disguised team were staying on Goo’Waddle.  Tanden had been beaten earlier that day, and his arm was broken by an overseer; the Brotherhood had no use for him with a broken arm, so they threw him into the canal to drown.  Somehow he made it to shore, where he ended up hiding in the shrubbery outside the estate where Tibby and his team were staying.  Tibby found Tanden hiding, injured and afraid; he took him in and saw to it that he got medical attention.  At the time, I was still enslaved across town, so I only know of these events because Tanden told me of them.  Tanden told me of smugglers that came to the estate.  Tibby tried to find out where Logden, the man who had the solbidyum, was hiding.  The Ruwallie Rasson also came to the estate claiming that Kerabac had violated their rules by operating a business without being a member of their cartel; they were going to take all his possessions and make everyone in Tibby's group slaves of Tondor, their leader; but Padaran challenged Tondor to hand-to-hand combat and defeated him.  Because of this he ended up becoming the leader of the Ruwallie Rasson.”  I glanced over at the Admiral and saw him smiling to hear about his nephew’s victory over the Ruwallie Rasson leader.  Jenira continued.

“Tibby and his friends somehow managed to track down the prostitution house where I was from the information Tanden gave them, and Tibby came and purchased me from the prostitution house where I was enslaved.  He took me back to the calgana where they were staying and reunited me with my brother.  We were so happy to be together then,” on the vid screen a tear appeared in Janira’s eye as she signed.  “Tanden believed that Tibby was going to reunite us with our parents. Tibby didn’t know that our parents had been killed a year earlier.  I was forced to watch as both were executed before me, and I was warned that if I didn’t do as I was told, I would meet their fate as well.  I didn’t want Tanden to know, so I didn’t tell him.

“Tanden dearly loved Tibby, Kalana and Padaran, as well as all the others in Tibby’s team on the planet.  In the end, when we were trapped by the Brotherhood, Tibby tried his very best to save us all.  When Tanden was killed by the Brotherhood, and when they were about to kill me, Tibby risked his life to try to save me; if it were not for him and the androids that came to our rescue, I would have died for sure, as Shydak had cut my throat, right here,” she signed and placed her hand on her throat.  “Tibby pursued Shydak, the leader of the Brotherhood cell, when he fled and shot down many of the Brotherhood ships using one of their own fighters.  He was still in pursuit of Shydak when his fighter was shot and he crashed into the planet.  He was barely saved from death, he was so badly injured; he had to have a new eye cloned after losing his left eye in the crash as well as limbs reattached.  Tibby made arrangements for many of the orphaned children on Goo’Waddle to be brought here to Megelleon and has set up a place for them on his estate where they can learn and play and be free and safe.  He ended both slavery and forced prostitution on Goo’Waddle, he established peace there and ended the reign of the Brotherhood and their evil ways there.

“I hate the Brotherhood for all the evil they have done, and I have vowed that I will not speak again until they all have been destroyed. I will do all I can to see an end to their reign of terror and slavery. I will fight to the death to defend Tibby and Kalana from anyone who tries to harm them,” she signed in a defiant pose and then turned and walked back to her seat. As she did I saw that Commander Wabussie had slipped in unnoticed while she was making her presentation.

The Admiral once more returned to the podium but not before stopping and talking to the Justice first.  The Justice listened to him for a moment and then nodded and stood and said, “I realize that we are near time for the noon lunch break, however, due to unusual circumstances, which will soon be explained, we will continue.  I feel it is important that we do so, so please bear with us. 

Admiral Regeny stepped forward and began,  “Honored senator, you heard testimony from Tibby yesterday under the questioning of Leader Roritat that Tibby and the Admiralty didn’t feel we could trust the information coming from the FOI.  That is true, we were getting information from them, some of which was blatantly false, and we discovered that there were indeed members of the Brotherhood in the FOI who were blocking information from being fully disclosed to the proper people.  When the high command decided to test all members of the military for loyalty in the military, we suggested that the FOI do the same within their organization as well.  That request was denied by Garfreed Aliquatee, the head of the FOI, leaving the high command in a situation of not knowing if information we received was true, or even if we were getting all the information.  As a result, I authorized the establishment of a covert group to seek out information about groups, organizations and individuals operating with the intent to do harm to the Federation.  This group is called the Federation Security Organization or FSO, which is being funded at the moment through the Office of the Admiralty.  It is headed up by Commander Wabussie and currently has hundreds of operatives strategically located about the Federation and a few outside the Federation as well.  The FSO has, in the past few days, uncovered information of utmost importance that needs to be revealed immediately to the Senate. In as much as it has a bearing on this case, I will now turn over the podium for Commander Wabussie to tell you what we have learned.”  While the admiral and Commander Wabussie exchanged places there was a loud buzz of conversation taking place about the hall.

“First Citizens,” Wabussie said, addressing me and then nodding toward Kala, Honorable Justice Mastoeth and senators.  The news and evidence I am about provide you are shocking, and may be overwhelming.  As the Admiral just told you, we recognized there was a problem in the FOI when we were not receiving intelligence reports of things we knew were taking place. We suspected that the Brotherhood had infiltrated the FOI and that it was compromised.  This doesn’t mean that the FOI didn’t have members loyal to the Federation, but it meant that people in the chain of command were not passing information on that needed to be.  The failure of Garfreed Aliquatee to have the FOI members tested and Brotherhood sympathizers removed has done severe damage to the Federation on many levels.  In order for us to find out what was going on, it became necessary for us to have our own undercover operatives infiltrate the FOI.  We were able to find several agents existing within the FOI who we were able to determine were loyal to the Federation, and using them and information they were able to provide to us, we pieced together a startling picture of the workings within the FOI.  I have here a list of key people within the FOI who are Brotherhood members who answer to one of the top leaders in the Brotherhood, a man named Shydak.  This list should be downloading to all your personal vid screens as I speak.   Shydak was not unknown to us in the military.  We have many intercepted conversations of Brotherhood transmissions and communications referencing Shydak. Tibby encountered him at Goo’Waddle as well. 

“Using information uncovered by our operatives about the Federation, we learned Shydak was on his way here to meet with ranking members of the Brotherhood and we hoped with the head of the Brotherhood as well.  This is a picture of Shydak; it’s quite possible some of you may have seen him in the company of some of the highest ranking individuals in the Federation at times.”   An image of Shydak appeared on the screen and I felt myself tensing up as I looked at that face once more.  I could feel all the hate I felt for this man rising within me.

Wabussie continued.  “About two weeks ago Shydak arrived here in Megelleon and since then he has been meeting with a number of people in clandestine settings.  Fortunately, with the information we had uncovered, we were able to plant surveillance devices in the right locations, and this is what we uncovered.  This is a meeting took place a four days ago,” a series of images appeared on the vid screens showing Shydak talking and laughing with Garfreed Aliquatee. There was a large gasp from the hall of senators.  “These other men you see here at this meeting with Garfreed Aliquatee and Shydak are some of the top-ranking members of the FOI,” Wabussie said as more images appeared on the screen.

“These photos were taken last evening at another meeting,” he continued. Shydak could be seen talking to a group of men all dressed in senators’ attire.  There was a loud gasp and buzz of conversation about the hall that took a few moments to die down.  “If you are looking for these senators in the hall today,” Wabussie continued, “you will notice they are absent.  Sometime during the night they all disappeared, along with this man.”  The next image that appeared on the screen was that of Leader Roritat standing with Shydak, the two appeared to be engaged in intense conversation.  The noise of conversation in the hall was explosive with senators jumping to their feet in astonishment.  It took the intervention of Justice Mastoeth shouting at the top of his lungs to establish order and quietness again so Wabussie could continue.

“I have here a vid recording; we have enhanced the sound and filtered out background noise so you can hear the conversation between Shydak and Leader Roritat.”

“You blew it today with your questioning of Tibby,” Shydak can be seen saying to Roritat.

Roritat came back at Shydak, “Don’t fuss at me, I told you to get rid of him a long time ago.  You’ve botched the job every time.  You were supposed to get rid of him at Plosaxen and you messed that one up.  You blew it when Senator Euregata called you from TEZU LAGONG and told you Tibby was there, and you blew it again at Goo’Waddle, so don’t go telling me that I blew it.  I should replace you with someone more competent.

“We need someone who understands the way Tibby thinks,” Roritat can be heard saying, “someone from Earth.”

“Where are you going to get another Earthman?” Shydak answered, “The Tottalax destroyed the planet with an asteroid.”

“Yes, but Tibby rescued some colonists from Earth that were on the planet’s moon and another nearby planet; one of them was a military leader and he and Tibby are enemies.  He’s being held in a cell here at the Capitol awaiting trial for crimes against sentient life forms.  I think he may be more than willing to help us.”  The vid ends, and Wabussie continues speaking.