Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (48 page)

             
As he made his way back to his ship, he decided to hire a group of humans he had once fought beside. They were hired guns, mercenaries with no allegiances save their own bank accounts. They were known as the Dark Brigade, and were feared throughout the galaxy. They were considered to be among the best human warriors in the galaxy and they hailed from a small Federation planet called Wanderhal. These were the only humans he did not hate, although he was sure that if someone paid them, they would try to come for him as well. When he had returned to the
Retribution
, he sent out the transmission. "Tenger, it has been too long."

             
"Tovanoras," He replied with a smile. "To what do I owe the honor of your transmission?" Tovanoras was certain there was sarcasm in Tenger's comment, but he didn't mind. That just seemed to be the warrior's way of communication.

             
"I would like to hire you and your men to kill someone."

             
"How many of my men and who are we killing?"

             
"All sixty and your target is a human called Jesse Marcos."

             
"Ahh," Tovanoras could see the understanding in Tenger's eyes. "The man who killed your brother. I have to warn you, all sixty of us will be an expensive proposition."

             
"Money is no object, Tenger."

             
"Alright, we're in. What are the parameters?"

             
"You may kill whomever you need to in order to get to Marcos, and you may cause as much collateral damage as you like. Just get the job done."

             
"It won't be easy, word is that King Dominus has given the man a planet. He is likely to be very well protected there."

             
"On the contrary, he is likely to feel safe there, and since you are human, he will not see you as a threat until it is too late."

             
"Maybe, but he was just attacked on Kaldor by a renegade force of ex-Conglomerate soldiers, so he may be on the lookout for more attempts. Either way, we'll get him."

             
"Please make it soon." Tovanoras added as he ended the transmission. He turned to Challa and smiled. “Once Marcos is dead, it will only be a matter of time until we take our rightful place as the rulers of the Lawless Sector." As he strode off the bridge, he once again wondered why he cared so much about his dead brother's dream.

______

              Jesse was back in the beautiful conference room of the central tower.  They were one hundred sixty-two stories up and deciding the direction a city would take. Seated around him were the nine men and women that would hopefully be the ones to make the city as good as it could be. He hadn't had a good night sleep, maybe it was the pain he still had in his leg and maybe it was the weight of responsibility now fixed squarely on his shoulders. Kimi had stayed awake with him all night, smiling at his pacing, calming with her words of encouragement and relentless when they finally gave up on sleep in favor of training. Even with his subpar leg, he was still better with the staff, but he sported several new bruises from the wooden practice sword she had hit him with several times. The morning meeting had just begun and he already wished he were back in bed. He found it ironic that the first official day of his tenure was marked with a strong desire for sleep.

             
"Jess, you do realize that five of the ten people sitting on this council are military. Six if we count you. I'm not sure that sends a good message." Manny said as the meeting was beginning.

             
"Manny is right, we need more civilians in your cabinet." Nina agreed.

             
"You're probably right, but let's take care of a little housekeeping first." He paused as he looked at his friends. "First, I would like to make Admiral Sonnadall the Fleet Admiral. He is now in charge of the entire fleet. I would also like to make General Kelly the Commanding General. He will be in charge of both planetary defense and public safety, and he will have control of our Army and Marine resources including the warriorbots." He had spoken with Manny earlier to let him know of his decision and that the decision was based on Sonnadall's knowledge of the Kalephi Galaxy and experience in battle within this galaxy. Fortunately, Manny agreed and was not upset at not being in command. "I am also promoting Colonel Manny Hernandez to General. He will be tasked specifically with overseeing our Special Forces recruitment, development and training."

             
"Thanks, Jess, I've wanted to do something like this for a long time."

             
"It was an easy choice, Manny, and you will have whatever personnel you need available to you to make it happen, minus, of course,
Endeavor's
crew. Jo can loan some of them to you on occasion, but you guys will have to work that out."

             
"Can I transfer command of the Olympians over to Sanjay?" Manny asked.

             
"That is a question for the Admiral after our meeting." Jesse replied. "Josiah, you will be the head of my intelligence gathering network.
Endeavor
and our three cloaked shuttles will all fall under your command along with the
Justice
and the
Freedom
. While you still will be
Endeavor's
commanding officer, your responsibilities will broaden. General Kelly and Admiral Sonnadall both have some good suggestions for you to recruit to your network and Nina has some good administrative choices."

             
"Trust me, Josiah; they'll make your life much easier." Nina added.

             
"Serge will be our Minister of Science. By the way, have Jason and Irina begun working on the planetary defenses?"

             
"Yes, Irina has two teams working on the installation of the shield generators while Jason has recruited Collin, Ariel and Maria to lead the teams installing our Plasma Cannons. They should be completely finished including all networking and testing within the next day or two."

             
"Excellent, I am also making Nina the Minister of Administration. She will be my second-in-command. She will implement and oversee anything we decide in this room. Nina knows how to get things done, and we're gonna turn her loose on our new city to make sure it all functions smoothly. If any have doubts as to her qualifications, just remember, she coordinated the one point nine million employees of Sea Side Enterprises, which is more than six times our current population. Our company ran smoothly and this city will run smoothly."

             
"What you're saying, Jess, is that she was always the brains behind the operation." Josiah joked to a round of laughter.

             
"Absolutely, that part anyway. Serge and I on our own could barely remember how to do payroll, or pay the energy bill."

             
"Which is why we created our own energy sources," Serge interjected with a laugh.

             
Jesse smiled at Serge's comment. "But once we brought Nina on we became a corporate behemoth almost overnight. Anyway, Colonel Jameson, I am also promoting you to Admiral. You will report directly to Admiral Sonnadall." He looked around the room again and continued. "Josiah, you, Manny and Admiral Jameson will not be part of the cabinet after today. Two military personnel will be enough." He could see Manny and Josiah stealthily share a celebratory fist bump. He suspected Jameson felt the same way.

             
"We will be adding four more people to round out your cabinet," Nina interjected.

             
"Yes, we will and at least two of them need to be Hyperian, because I'm going to need some people close to me that know the nuts and bolts of how things work in this galaxy."

             
"I have a few suggestions," Jonu offered.

             
"Thank you, Jonu, but before that let me give you and Suzy your titles and tell you what Nina and I imagine we still need. Suzy will be the Minister of Health and Welfare, and Jonu, you will be our Minister of Economic Development. We still need a Minister of Education and a Minister of Trade, you know, import export stuff. We will also need a Minister of Inter-planetary Relations or Diplomacy as we reach out to the other planets around us, and a Minister of Public Services which will include law enforcement, emergency services, hospitals, sanitation and child welfare. Of course, all of these ministers will have several department heads working directly under them. We can't do it alone."

             
"So our ten member cabinet will include fleet, army, administration, science, medicine, economy, education, trade, diplomacy and finally public service." Nina summarized. "We already have six positions filled, any suggestions on the other four?"

             
“Charlie McLeod's wife Diane was the Educational Administrator for all of Chicago. I think she might be a good choice." Manny offered.

             
"Good suggestion, I have her on my short list of two people to interview," Nina replied.

             
"I have a person as well," Jonu offered. "As well as two very strong candidates for the trade and relations positions. I would like to submit Karanna Tibal for Trade; she has served King Dominus for years. I would also like to submit Gileed Taved for Relations as he, too, was handpicked by the King for such duties."

             
"King Dominus has told me that these two individuals would be of great use to us as well." Admiral Sonnadall agreed.

             
"That's good enough for me; let's get them in here for our afternoon meeting. Tomorrow, Nina will interview the three candidates for the education position and any candidates for the public services position."

             
"I recommend Jim Jenson, former Emergency Services Chief for London and before that, Police Chief for the city of Madrid." Nina began. "If anyone else has other suggestions, someone else would have to do the interviews to prevent me from being biased." She added with a smile.

             
When no other suggestions came, Jesse said, "Great, get him in here for the afternoon session, too. We are one member away from a full cabinet." He looked over at Manny, Josiah and Jameson and added, “You will all still be part of my military cabinet along with Admiral Sonnadall and General Kelly, so please do not take dismissal from this cabinet a slight in any way, it just wouldn't have been seen as legitimate if fifty percent of the cabinet was military." They all smiled and nodded their understanding. Jesse then looked around the room and said, "Let's take a two hour break, I want to see my family, and that should give our new members enough time to get briefed and get here." With that, the meeting was adjourned and Jesse was off to meet Kimi, Lana and Sun.

             
As Jesse was leaving the building, Nina approached him. "Hey, Jess, I think I can get these three interviews done in about the next three hours, do you mind if Serge briefs the new members and I'm a little late for this afternoon's meetings?"

             
"Not at all, do you think an hour each will be enough time? Remember, this has got to be someone that can not only start up a program from scratch, but also integrate two completely different cultures and still promote learning."

             
"It should be, and if it's not, we'll be a member down for the afternoon. Believe me; the candidates will know the difficulties of the position before it is offered."

             
"Sounds good, see you in a few hours." He gave his sister a kiss on the cheek and went off to meet him family.

             
Two hours later, they were back in the room and surprisingly Nina was already there with Diane McLeod. He went over to ask Nina how it had gone so quickly and she let him know that the other two candidates had asked to be excused, so she interviewed Diane and was satisfied that she could do the job. As the rest of the cabinet arrived, he was happy to see four Hyperians in the mix, and four women. He had feared people might think he was being chauvinistic when it was just Suzy and Nina among all of the other men. Now he felt a little better.

             
Jesse looked over the newly formed cabinet and began. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for being willing to make New Polisia and Donara the best it could be. Before we begin, I would like to welcome our new members and just encourage you. Don't feel like you're coming in on something that's already been going for a while and feel like you need to catch up. The reality is, this cabinet was just formed today and you have missed one meeting." They all smiled at his encouragement as he continued. "The hard part starts now; we're creating a whole new government." He paused. "No pressure." The meeting continued for another four hours as problems were addressed, details were worked out and names were thrown out there as suggestions to hire to fill the different department head positions each cabinet member had under them. Jesse then had a short meeting with his military council while Nina was wrapping up the other meeting. They came back together for a quick briefing on the next steps for each department and then the meeting was adjourned. It was all very productive and Jesse was very tired as he was leaving the meeting to go home.