Torl's Journey

Torl turned collecting Seala, Irnla and Url and walked back up the portal onto the ship. As soon as the portal door closed, Seala stopped and crossed her arms.

“You sure made a mess of that. Couldn’t you have played along at least long enough to allow me to see my mother?” She was clearly upset.

“Your mother was not among the delegation, I would have sensed her, and you would have too. If I had played along, within the hour we would have lost all leverage I had and I would have had to fight tooth and nail to get permission for any of us to stay in the system. This was a direct insult with the intent of determining how far they could push me. They got their answer.

I am sorry you did not get to see your mother this morning, but, since they forced me to claim my rights, I think I will be able to ensure you get to see her today.

Seala, please believe that I will do everything possible to ensure you are re-united with your mother as soon as possible. I love you and when you are unhappy, my heart hurts. Please understand that I am doing the best I can for all of us.”

Seala stood there for a moment longer, and then threw her arms around him. “I.. I didn’t notice until you said so that I had not felt her presence. Why was she not there? Do they want to keep us apart?”

She was sobbing, and Torl wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back gently as he kissed the top of her head and spoke softly to her, telling her that it had nothing to do with her, and probably had nothing to do with Lia. They were testing him, trying to push him away because they feared his ability to upset the balance of power. He apologized again and again for being the cause of her problems and repeated that he would make it right.

“Sir, Farnle is insisting that he speak to you. Apparently you set off a fire storm out there. He is receiving a barrage of demands from members of the high council to speak to your personal secretary so they can arrange to meet with you and welcome you in person.”

Torl chuckled. “Tell Farnle that I want to make them wait, they were all party to the insult that was given to me a bit ago, so they can wait until I feel like responding. He will know how to handle it from there. Also ask him to contact the Port Authority and request that they locate Initiate I’lle and have her contact me. When she responds put her right through. I think it is time they learned to respect a Srin Master as well.

Have they transported Captain Relos to Port Authority control yet?”

Url responded that the captain had been moved earlier in the day.

“Okay, we will be in the captain’s quarters then, I need to collect a few items there anyway. Url, would you stop by the first officer’s quarters and collect the contents of the personal safe there. Do not let anyone see what you collect, bring it directly to me in the captain’s quarters.”

“Yes sir.” Url took off toward the first officer’s quarters as Torl led Seala and Irnla to the captain’s quarters. Once they were in the captain’s quarters, he opened and emptied the captain’s personal safe slipping a blaster and a tangler into compartments in his jacket, handing another blaster to Irnla who smoothly slipped it into her boot, and pulled another out for Url. It might get dangerous now that he had played his ace. The balance of power had just shifted significantly into unknown territory for the council members, some would not welcome that. The other weapons they had gathered from the assassins, he decided to leave for Farnle to use as he saw fit. He did take the persona detectors and the communicators putting one each in his jacket and handing one of each to Seala. He added one of the frequency benders into his jacket. He then gave Irnla the remaining persona detector, and one of the light diffusers and one of the frequency benders and set another light diffuser and frequency bender aside for Url along with the remaining communicator. If need be, he and Seala could use illusion while Url and Irnla used the light benders so that their party could move around undetected. Finally, he took the two electromagnetic blast devices and gave one to Irnla and set one aside for Url.

They had dumped the poison gas device into space as soon as they were certain which device it was, so that completed the list of items they had stored in the safe. One of the light diffusers and several weapons would be left for Farnle to use as he saw fit. He would use the remainder for his team to help ensure they would be safe from physical attacks.

As he completed the distribution of items, Url entered the captain’s quarters and slipped him the generator he had removed from the ship. Torl slipped it into his shirt and taking some tape from the desk, he taped it to his side so that he could reach the activation switch. That was their secret weapon; he could use it to generate mass volumes of power colors in the event they had to fight on that level. It would be taxing, but both he and Seala were capable of drawing very heavily on the colors generated by this device. He instructed all three of his companions that the device should be blasted out of existence in the event he went down; it was too powerful to allow it to fall into the wrong hands. They all agreed.

Torl then accessed the console in the cabin and reset the safe to Farnle’s thumbprint, before putting the remaining items from the assassins back in the safe and closing it.

Irnla came over to him then and told him that I’lle was available.

“Patch her through.”

“Master Torl, how may I be of assistance?”

“I am in need of an assistant with the skills you have been learning. I would be willing to take you on as an apprentice if you would be willing to leave your current position and become my assistant. Are you interested?”

“Yes, Master Torl. Thank you for considering me. I am currently studying under Jin Master Sin, would you like to speak to her first?”

“I will speak to her for protocol sake, but if you are willing, I would like you to start immediately. Irnla my head of security will give you instructions on where to meet us. I would like you to locate Lia and find out all you can about her current status. Welcome aboard.”

“Thank you Master, it is an honor to serve.”

He nodded to Irnla and she took over. He then contacted Farnle and asked him to locate Jin Master Sin and request a few moments of her time to speak with him.

A few seconds later, Farnle announced that Jin Master Sin was excited to speak to him.

“Patch her through please.”

“Master Torl, what an honor to speak to you. Welcome to Sinale Six. How may I be of assistance?”

“Master Sin, I’m afraid I must apologize to you, I have hijacked one of your apprentices. I asked I’lle to join my staff and become my apprentice today. Please accept my apologies for not speaking to you first.”

“Master Torl, as you well know, you have no obligation to speak to any junior master about any apprentice. I’lle is a good student, and I wish her all the best as your apprentice. I am honored that you have chosen one of my students to join you, and even more honored that you chose to speak of it to me personally. Thank you. May I serve you in any other manner?”

“Yes, Is there currently a master of the Srin level on planet?”

“No, Master Torl, there are currently 10 masters on planet; the highest rank is Lar Master Flarr. You are the only master of the Srin level in the Free Colonial System as far as I know.”

“Very well, would you please contact all the masters on the planet and invite them to meet with me this evening in the VIP lounge outside of gate 369ULI in the star port? How long will it take to get everyone together? I assume that it can be done by this evening.”

“Yes, Master Torl, Master Flarr is the furthest away and he can be there in about three hours. We were all hoping that you would call us to meet you, I am certain we can all be there by .56 day. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes, that will be fine, thank you.”

“It is an honor to serve you Master Torl. I look forward to meeting you in person this evening.”

He contacted Farnle again and asked him how the battle with the high council members was going. Farnle laughed. “You have them plenty stirred up, sir. The most recent one to be buzzing about identified herself as the former first seat a Councilwoman J’Irle. She said you summoned her. By the way, we did receive full confirmation of your claim submission and a notice that you have been confirmed as the First Seat of the High Council of the Free Colonial System. Does that mean I have to call you Your Highness now?”

Torl laughed. “I cannot imagine you saying those words to anyone my friend. No, you do not need to call me Your Highness. I did summon the former first seat and a Councilman T’Lane. I’m sorry to use you as my assistant, but would you mind contacting those two and telling them that I will meet with them in the VIP lounge at .59 this evening? I have acquired an assistant but she will not be here for a little while, she has to come in from the space station. “

“Sir, you have not yet signed over the ship to me, so as far as I am concerned, you are still the captain and I am your assistant. Besides, it gives me great pleasure to watch these planet bound, self-important bureaucrats squirm. “

Torl smiled, he had expected that Farnle would enjoy taunting those who clearly felt they were his superiors.

Irnla informed him that I’lle was on the way and would arrive within the hour. He thanked her and asked if I’lle had been able to collect the information he had requested. Irnla said that I’lle indicated it was queued for him if he would log into the terminal.

He was pleasantly surprised at her efficiency, and sat down at the terminal and logged in. Sure enough, the information was queued up. He opened the file and saw that Lia had signed a resignation agreement that included exile to Sharing Three where she was not to have anything to do with power assisting technologies or system security. In return, her retirement and built up benefits would be safe and she could apply them to her next position. She also would not have a negative mark put on her personnel file, and would be allowed to retain her seniority in the service system. She was not to contact anyone still working for the interstellar security system, and was required to serve 80 days of community service over the next two years. That actually seemed fair from what she had said her offense was. Torl was not sure he agreed with the isolationist attitude the Free Colonial System had adopted, but he did understand the need to enforce the law.

Next he looked at the locate request I’lle had run. Lia was under house arrest in a province controlled by Under Councilor Yin. She had even provided the communicator code to contact Yin, very impressive. She was already anticipating his needs. Torl coded in Yin’s contact number, and waited as the connection was established. Yin’s assistant answered and Torl identified himself and told the assistant he wished to speak with Yin. Less than a second later, he announced that Yin was available.

“High Councilor Torl, this is Yin, how can I be of service?”

“You have a former Watch Commander named Lia under house arrest in one of your provinces. I would like to have her transferred to my supervision at the star port as soon as possible. Can you arrange that?”

“Yes High Councilor. It will be done immediately. I should let you know that I am under orders to notify Councilwoman J’Irle if Lia is moved. Unless you countermand that directive, I will be required to comply.”

“Deliver her to the port, then comply with the notification directive. I want her in my control before the Councilwoman knows she has been moved. Is that clear?”

“Yes High Councilor. It will be done within the hour.”

“Thank you. That is all.”

Seala was beaming when he turned around. She had been depressed ever since they had gotten back to the captain’s quarters, and he thought she had been ignoring everything and everyone, but apparently she had been listening in to his conversations.

“Is she really on her way? My mother? Thank you, thank you.”

He had only been able to nod yes as she came over and gave him a big hug.

“Yes, I have claimed the highest political position in the Free Colonial System. I may not be safe walking around the star port, but my orders will not be disobeyed while I am alive. She will be here within the hour. And no one will dare to try taking her away without my permission after she arrives. She is scheduled to begin her exile in four days when an in system space craft arrives to take her to Sharing Three. You might want to do some research on what Sharing Three has to offer, since I assume you wish to travel with her when she departs.

I have a lot of work to do here to consolidate my position, so it will be a while, likely a couple of months, before I will be able to travel to Sharing Three to visit.”

Seala nearly pushed him out of the seat so she could use the terminal to research Sharing Three. Torl laughed at her eagerness. He had done something good today, if everything else went sideways, at least he had made arrangements to get Lia and Seala together.

A short while later, Irnla informed him that I’lle had arrived and needed to be escorted in from the terminal. He nodded and she left.

“Url my friend, we are going to have to find some men to join our group, we are rapidly getting outnumbered.”

Url laughed. “Yes, sir a couple more men would help balance things out, but I can’t complain, everyone you have brought on appears to be extremely well qualified, and capable of helping with security as well.”

“In the politically charged environment I have moved us into; being able to defend one’s self is not optional. We may need every capable body we can get before this is done.

It is possible that it will all go smoothly, but I’m afraid my experience with politicians who are in danger of losing influence indicates that they will go to any extent to remove the danger. And my friend we are the danger.”

“Well, I guess I finally know why it is that you need security. It is a numbers game; we need to appear to be more dangerous to attack than to leave alone.”

“That’s right, and I am about to leverage some numbers that the politicians forgot existed. If this evening goes well, the battle may be over by the morning.”

“Sir, this is I’lle, your new assistant. I verified her ident and persona scan.”

I’lle was a relatively short muscular woman with a dark space tan and bright blond hair that could almost be described as yellow. She had large blue eyes, a pug nose, and full lips above a pointed chin. Most would describe her face a cute rather than beautiful or handsome.”

“Master Torl, thank you for the opportunity. Should I have my bags brought on board?”

“No, I think we need to get out of the ship and into the city. I need you to find us a place to stay. It needs to be defensible, consult with Irnla and Url here on that requirement.

I plan to have an in resident staff of about 20-25 not counting household staff. We will need office space, workout rooms, a med clinic, an armory, and a walk-in four factor safe. We also need full net access and an independent computer system on a data encrypted, firewalled network. I would like to be moved into a facility within 3 days.

I also need to acquire 5-6 additional security staff, again Irnla and Url will help with that, an accounting tech level 4, an investment tech level 5, a comp spec level 4, two legal spec level 5s, a med tech level 4, two political aids level 4, and a chief of staff. Did you get all that?”

“Yes, master.”

“And drop the master stuff; if you must use an honorary, sir is easier for me to accept.”

“Yes m… sir”

“Sir, Lia is here. Url has gone down to escort her in.”

“I’lle our group is getting a little larger than this ship was designed to handle, can you get us a block of rooms in one of the local hotels? Here is a list of foreign accounts from which funds can be drawn (he gave her a list of all of Captain Relos’ accounts, and the accounts associated with his actual and assumed identities, he did not include accounts for three identities he had not used, just in case he had need of them later). And in case that is a problem, I have a large stash of credit chits in a storage locker in the terminal.”

“Foreign accounts are in high demand for use in a number of government activities. I should be able to convert these foreign accounts to locally funded accounts in a couple of hours. Hang on to your credit chits in case you need to be mobile suddenly.”

Torl smiled, “You are as quick as I remembered. That is good; we may have to do a lot of thinking on our feet over the next few days. In case you have not already heard, I have claimed the first seat of the high council. Councilwoman J’Irle cannot be very happy with me right now, and those who saw her as their political ace in the hole, will be even less happy. So be on your guard at all times.”

“Yes, sir.”

Url entered.

“Sir, I present Kre Master Lia.”

Torl knew she was there as soon as the door opened, he had felt her presence since she arrived at the terminal.

“Lia, welcome….”

Seala moved past him so quickly that it startled him a little as she ran to hug her mother.

“Mother, you are here.”

“My sweet daughter Seala, it is so wonderful to finally see you in person.” There was hugging and kissing and a lot of tears for a few minutes.

Torl shoed the staff out of the office and went with them to allow Lia and Seala some private time.

“Irnla, would you contact Farnle and ask him to join us for evening meal. Url, please ask the ship’s cook to prepare a private meal for our group in the small chow hall.

“Yes sir.”

“Yes sir.”

“Folks at .56 the fun begins. Let’s get things rolling. I need to have the VIP lounge fully secured and cleared of any listening or spying devices. We need to scan the entire area for anything unusual such as we experienced on the trip here, and we need all that done before we eat our evening meal. We will need to perform the scan again before the arrival of our guests at .56 and a third time before the arrival of our other guests at .59. If you need to, enlist the aid of some of the ship’s crew and staff.

I’lle I drafted up a transfer of ownership to turn this ship over to Farnle, can you have it checked over to make sure it meets all the legal requirements of the Free Colonial System? I would like to file it following our evening meal.”

“Yes.. sir” She had been working on his earlier requests, but she immediately redirected her efforts without missing a step. I’lle would be a very good assistant.

“Sir, Farnle will join us at .52 for our evening meal.”

“Sir, the ships cook said he would be honored to prepare the private meal it will be ready to serve at .52.”

And with that Irnla and Url disappeared through the main door to the suite. With everyone in action, Torl decided he could and should spend a few minutes with Lia explaining what was going on. He knocked lightly on the office door, and then entered.

“Lia, welcome to our growing little group. I apologize that I cannot leave you and your daughter alone for an extended period of time to allow you to completely catch up, but I assure you that you will not need to be separated again unless you wish it. I need to explain to you what all is going on and enlist your assistance in some of the activities I am undertaking this evening.

First, the greeting party sent to greet us this morning was headed by an heir to a minor councilman. This combined with a couple of other minor insults forced me to move earlier than planned, and I claimed the first seat of the high council, earlier today.

Since the logical intent of the slights was to push me out or solidify political leverage for the council members who planned the greeting, and since they also slighted a Srin Master who had already proven his identity to them, I believe I need to present myself with the backing of the initiates and masters here on planet. To that end I have called a meeting of all the masters currently on planet.

I assume they were unable to contact you for this meeting due to the house arrest. By the way you are still under house arrest, only your house is now wherever Seala and I are.

The meeting with the masters is scheduled for .56, followed by a meeting with Councilwoman J’Irle and Councilman T’Lane (his son was the senior person sent to greet me) at .59.

It is my intent to unify the masters and have them stand with me when I meet with the Council members. I need your assistance to unify the masters.”

“Master Torl, the presence of a Srin Master will unite the masters without the need for any assistance from me, but whatever aid I can provide I will. Lar Master Flarr is the only one capable of providing any dissent and he will be so excited about having a Srin Master to learn from, there is no chance at all that he would oppose anything you wish to do. All of us have dreamed of the day that a Prin Master or Srin Master would come to us to help re-establish the senior ranks of the mastery.

Thank you for bringing me here. Thank you for including me in your meeting with the other masters. But most especially, thank you for reuniting me with my daughter.” She stepped up to Torl and gave him a kiss. Then she stepped back and said “Thank you” once more.

Torl blushed a little and just nodded. He looked at the woman who had sacrificed her career to aid him when he got in over his head dealing with two witch assassins on this very ship.

She was fair skinned and tall with long auburn hair that bounced as she moved her head. Her large round eyes were light brown and settled above a perfectly shaped nose and full red lips. She had a strong jawline with a squared chin above a perfectly proportioned body. This woman was indeed beautiful by any standard.

They spoke a little about her plans for exile. Sharing Three was a smaller planet in this system, primarily supported by agriculture and mining. It had six large moons which were being mined for elithium and artanium which were found nowhere else in this system.

Lia had an unusual talent for locating minerals using the power colors, and had also developed quite a green thumb growing plants as a hobby while studying in the universities, it calmed her and cleared her mind when she got stressed or studied too hard.

She had maneuvered to get assigned to Sharing Three because it offered the best potential for making a good living.

Soon Irnla knocked at the door and announced that the evening meal had been set. So they joined her and walked to the chow hall.

Farnle arrived just as they did, and Seala introduced him to Lia. Torl introduced him to I’lle who arrived seconds later and came over directly to tell him that the document had been reviewed and was iron clad by the local laws.

They all sat down and enjoyed an excellent meal of prime Narl steak, sweet potatoes and mashed Leal leaves, followed by warm Zune berry pie. The cook had gone all out.

After the meal, Torl stood up and asked Farnle to join him.

“Everyone, I would like to present to you Captain Farnle, proud owner of a slightly used and currently over populated cargo class star ship. Title has been transferred this evening. From this moment forward, we need to ask the captain for permission to enter his ship and for permission to borrow his staff.”

Everyone in the room cheered and clapped their hands, shouting “Long live Captain Farnle”. When the cheering finally subsided, Torl turned back to Farnle.

“Captain, we are currently utilizing the expertise of a couple of your techs to scan the terminal, and we will need their assistance for a few more hours. Is that okay with you?”

“Yes, sir. You may ask assistance of any of my crew or staff for as long as we are in port. Thank you, sir. It has been a pleasure serving under your command.”

“The pleasure was all mine.”

They talked for a short while longer before Farnle apologized but he needed to return to the command center. Torl checked the time and decided that it was time for him to be going to the VIP lounge so that he could be there to greet the masters as they arrived. He asked Irnla if the scans had been completed and the room secured. She replied that it all was complete and in order.

“Okay, folks, I believe it is time we proceeded to the VIP lounge to greet our first set of guests.”

They walked down the portal once more and went into the VIP lounge. The terminal staff had just restocked the snack table and the smell of warm cookies, and caf filled the air. A few minutes later the first of the masters began to arrive.