USS California The Golden Path 2

[jayphailey]

As with thre Earlier Piece, this one is obviated. I am telling this story closer to it's point and climax


USS California The Golden Path 2

The Verdan estate rolled away across low hills. Haley got a vaguely upper-crust British feel from it. She didn’t know how much of a copy of very expensive English estates it was.

Robots toiled away, tireless, precise, and infinitely patient, tending manicured lawns and gardens.

Transporter inhibitors prevented people from beaming in close. Haley, Sian, Grizishiri and Holo-Leeta walked up a very long driveway.

A herd of about dozen Ane were comfortable grazing in the mild early summer weather.

Elmazelan stood among the Ane. The Aneilog woman trotted over with her four-legged cousins. **Hi, Captain. What brings you this way?**

“We’ve been told that Lord Verdan might know something about House Beulongeau,” Haley said “I didn’t know there were Ane here.”

Elmazelan smiled and spread her hands in an exaggerated shrug **You didn’t ask. May I come along?**

“Sure.”

Haley looked around “Really more of an Ane scale place here, isn’t it?”

**Mostly. But the robots keep cutting the grass too short.**

Elmazelan joined the Ane in triple voiced laughter.

They walked up too many marble steps to the front door. It was large and heavy wood. Haley used the large knocker on the front of the door.

The door opened silently. A butler stood there. A holographic human man in black suit that had too many folds and and angles coming out of it. “May I say who’s calling?”

“Captain Haley Anderson, Commander Sian Irohthloh, Lieutenant Grizishiri QolloQ, Lieutenant Emazelan, and Leeta of the USS California,” Haley said.

“The Master has been informed and will join you in the Library, shortly. Please enter.”

They stepped into a foyer that Haley thought she could fit a type 8 shuttlecraft into, with ease.

Several statues of cherubs and maidens flashed red eyes and turned to face the party.

“We ask, for safety reasons, that you check all weapons,” The butler said, he gestured to a cabinet along the side of the foyer.

Haley placed two type 1 phasers in the small, ornate cabinet. Sian and Emazelan put one each.

Leeta’s thigh folded open and a mechanical holster slid out, allowing her to reach her serious polaron blaster. She put that in the cabinet. Then she took a small, glittering device from her bosom and put that in the cabinet.

“Thank you,” The Butler said.

He led them into another large room. It was wall to wall books, in dozens of known languages. Some of the books were worn and showed use. Others were fresh and bright as if newly made. There were numerous large oil paintings on the walls. Ornate tables and chairs were placed to allow readers to sit and enjoy whatever tome they found.

In the middle there was a large conference table with matching ornate chairs. Scattered all over this there were tablets. The majority were rectangles with wooden edges and inlaid gold, matching the decor of the building and the library. Among these were devices from all over. Orion and Federation, a few Klingon devices, and even a few Haley couldn’t immediately identify.

“Please be seated. May I get you anything?” The Butler asked.

“Do you have coffee?” Haley asked.

“How do you take it, Captain?”

Haley dictated her coffee order.

“Just water for me,” Sian said.

“And me,” Emazelan said.

“Very good.”

The Butler left and returned in moments with a tray that held a pitcher of water, with ice and a slice of lemon on it, as well as a small coffee carafe and delicate coffee cups. As the Butler served the visitors the main doors opened again.

Two people came through. One was a big Green Orion man with numerous scars. He wore wrap-around shades and had a very efficient Orion-style disruptor in a holster. The other was a large similarly tough-looking Klingon woman. She had a Mekleth Sword and a Klingon-style blaster.

They moved to the walls and took up positions to cover the Library.

Haley and her crew stood up carefully.

Three children came in with the bodyguards. They were of various ages. Two boys and a girl. They also wore polarized mirror shades and took up positions along the wall very seriously.

Haley peered intently. They had small civilian model disruptors, and knives in sheaths. The Orion man was stone-faced. The Klingon woman was stifling a grin.

The children were dressed casually in expensive-looking clothes. They were the oddest mix of yellow and green Haley had ever seen.

After them came a slim man, also wearing expensive casual clothing. His hair was short and shot through with gray. He had laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. He was a Golden Orion man, with an expensive-looking complexion.

With him was a Green Orion woman, she was dressed in something comfortably diaphanous and flowing. She looked at the Children being very serious bodyguards and also stifled a grin. She was carrying a touch of extra weight, just enough to make her look comfortable and snuggly. She moved with practiced grace.

“Greetings. I’m Verdan Genalin, Pleased to meet you,” Verdan smiled and stepped forward to shake Haley Anderson’s hand.

“Pleased, Sir,” Haley said.

“Have a seat and let’s get to business. I’m sorry to rush but I have things cooking. You and your crew are welcome here as guests. I’ll ask you to RSVP if you want to visit in groups of more than thirty, we’ll have to adjust the house systems to properly offer hospitality.”

“My Admiral sent us here looking for information on House Beulongeau,” Haley said. “Mister Deylhen said you could help.”

“Did he? Did he now? Hmmm, that’s interesting. But that’s not all there is to this, is there?”

Haley looked at Verdan. He patently knew. “There have been attacks by Beulongeau-aligned ships on Starfleet ships in the Fulcrum. We think the Tholians are involved.”

“Ah-hah, there we go. And Hailey figured you could find a thread to pull.”

Haley said “I’m Haley. He’s Admiral Six. Yeah, that’s the long and short of it.”

Verdan sat and grabbed a tablet off the table, turned it on, and started scrolling “Okay, okay, okay, yeah. Beulongeau. They’re a mid-sized house, but that’s made them aggressive, inventive and mean. They recently lost ships on a hit mission everyone else thought was too risky. But now they have advanced weapons and tactical systems they’re selling. Money is rolling in, it looks like they’ll come out ahead of things. Of course, that means their mercenaries and contractors get left hanging.

Ah, There’s the problem. Jerdalan Beulongeu is up to something. He’s squirreled away a lot of money and no one can tell why. His children, the ones who are still in his good graces are starting to jockey for position. Jerdalan’s old. Unless he fixes his succession, inheritance is going to turn into a fight. And whatever he’s hiding money for is making everyone nervous and uncertain.”

“Their clients, possibly the Tholians, are pressing them to get more aggressive in pursuit of the targets but the Beulongeau children are reluctant. They don’t like the idea of fighting the Federation directly. No one does.

“Enemies of the house, and allies are preparing to make things go their way if Jerdalan dies without better succession in place.”

“Is there any way for us to talk to them, to let them know we know it’s them and we’ll retaliate if they attack us again?” Haley asked.

Verdan shook his head “In the colonies, every word is measured for how it affects getting to your goal. Speaking the naked truth is rare. Anything you’d say to House Beulongeau would be viewed through that lens. They wouldn’t just believe you. They’d overanalyze it, overthink it, and come to some off-the-wall conclusion. There’s a serious communication barrier between Starfleet in general and the Orion Nobility. “

“What do you want in return for this information?” Sian asked.

“Well, three things. Keep quiet about where you got it. Remember who your friends are. Now you owe me a favor.”

“How do you know so much?” Grizishiri asked “You’re obviously some flavor of noble, but your mate is a Green and that makes you an outcast. “

Verdan smiled “Look around us. This huge house, and all the land…. Robots. It’s all relatively cheap. In a world with energy and replicators, the only thing worth anything is knowing things. My business is knowing things. I know people all over. I have insights about the ebbs and flows of history. I’m right often enough to make money. I am an intermediary between the Federation economy and the Orion economy. Both sides want that, for different reasons. So if I am careful enough I can make it happen and profit from it.”

“What do you think of Admiral Sidiq?” Holo-Leeta asked.

“Hmmm, she’s good at her job. But her job is mainly counterintelligence. She has stuff working. Interesting stuff. Previous failures have made her risk-averse. I don’t blame her. She spends a lot of time trying to track how the most creatively mean and underhanded bastards are trying to screw her over and get ahead of that.”

“What will she say if she knows we were here?” Haley asked.

“She’ll be angry. She doesn’t want cowboys going rogue and I don’t blame her. She’s lost people to that sort of thing and doesn’t want to lose anyone else. But I have a cover.”

“Oh?”

“Tell me about Li’ira.”

“Uhhh…. She’s a ship commander in Task Force Taffy Six.”

“Not anymore. They retired that weird Klingon/Orion thing she was flying.”

“Admiral Six is building her another ship.”

“What do you know about her as a person?”

Haley squinted “Why?”

Verdan said “You could say I’m a fan. Yours is the 5th Li’ira to appear. I met the original and followed her, but when more Li’iras started turning up…”

“She’s the one who got away,” Gloria said.

Haley looked carefully at Gloria “You, ah… You don’t mind…”

Gloria smiled “She’s the one who got away from all of us, Captain.”

Verdan said “Well, yes. That. But also, it’s weird. Is the universe trying to tell us something? It likes Li’iras and Haileys? There’s math behind it but it’s weird. Olivia is in heaven trying to unravel it all.”

“Sometimes, I think it’s possible to know too much,” Haley said.

“Father?” The Girl child said.

“Yes, Renda?”

She delicately approached him and whispered in his ear.

He looked thoughtful “I don’t know, honey…”

She looked at him behind her mirror shades.

Verdan looked at Haley “Renda and several other of our children would like to tour your Starship.”

Haley blinked rapidly One thing the USS California was not intended for was VIP tours.

But Haley liked Verdan and she liked his kids.

“Day after tomorrow,” She said, “I have to get things set up.”

Verdan smiled and Haley almost missed the slight surprise there ‘Thank you Captain.”

“Remember who your friends are,” Haley grinned back.

[Innkeeper]

Are you going to post these only here?

[jayphailey]

Yeah.


I could not get the shoot out at the Nervala resort right. The first draft had all the wrong people

The right one had too many people.

And the question wasn't "Who wins the shoot out?" We all know that.

The question is "What do you do with two Jerdala Beaulongeus?" What does Jerdala do? How do you cope with an enslaved android?

What does this means for things going forward?

Also it confirms the source of the Attacks on TFT6

The Tholians, working through John the Android paid Beulongeau with GPL and Advanced technology to send them up-armed pirates to take on TFT6 ships and destroy them.

We learned WHY in the Tholians did that with the Lovell story

Other questions remain "Who got the Android treatment?" and why?

If I were doing News for Trek the way you do it for Earth-H, I'd sprinkle in news of the effects this is having in the background

In recent times several real Klingon house lords have become supernaturally good at strategic calculations and devising non-standard tactics and have been inflicting losses on New Klingon factions.