Once A Warrior King

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own neither Farscape or Hammer's Slammers, but you already knew that, didn't you? Rating: Pretty much K, or K+. I'll let you know if it changes. Time: Not too long after A Matter of Intelligence.

John Crichton

Delvian buildings were cool both literally and figuratively. The building we sat in was basically one big tree. The floor and lower walls were the trunk, then came the branches which made up the windows and roof. When it was cold, the leaves expanded and wrapped around each other to keep out the weather while specially grown mushroom-like things provided heat. In nice weather, the leaves spread apart and gently fanned the air to cool it. The tree also provided the comfortable chair I sat in and the large table in front of me.

Aeryn and I were at loose ends. The kids were grown. Well, ours were. Moya had a new little daughter, Selic. Ever since Talyn, Moya had been in the lead for an Olympic medal for the Universe's most over protective mother. Living inside a Leviathan that has one hundred percent of her attention on her child is not fun. So, we left Moya and Selic to play in the Hynerian home system and took Rygel's offer to be his representative at these talks. His Amphibiousness does not pay well, but the food on the human flagship we travelled on was pretty good and we got a chance to see some places we hadn't seen before.

There was a commotion at the door and the other humans came in, the French. Excuse me, the Imperial French. Their leader, Admiral Darlan, was a big fellow with longish dark hair with just a bit of grey. He had a tough looking face split by a huge moustache and not helped by a broken nose he'd never bothered to fix. With him were several other officers in navy blue uniforms with gold braid. There were also a couple of officers in a lighter shade of blue. I decided those must be the Welsh who had hooked up with this admiral. They all sat down at a table like ours across from us.

I remembered the Marine and Navy officers I'd seen with my dad when I was younger. This looked like a very tough and salty crew.

Rudy, the head honcho of our delegation, greeted them politely. Rudy was a K'hiff, a race of bipeds that were descended from something resembling an Earth dog. He was my height, but much skinnier and had a coat of fine brown fur. He had been educated by the church and wore human style clothing, in this case a drab, dark blue suit set off by a large, floppy red bow tie. "Good day, Admiral Darlan. I'm Rudyard Kipling Vergaah, the Marshal's representative."

That was true but incomplete. Rudy headed up both O'Donnell's diplomatic corps and his intelligence service. I had never much liked the few spies I'd known, but I did like Rudy.

Rudy went on. "You already know Pa'u Zufir Zhaan who represents the Forests of Bazil. Also with us is Brother Sean, representing Brother Saul whose troops defend this planet." Brother Sean, a well fed Irishman with a ready smile, nodded to the assembled officers across from him. "Then there is Pa'u Olacfoltun, who represents the government of the Garden of Galil." A rather sour looking Delvian male nodded briefly. "Next, and representing Dominar Rygel XVI are Baron Crichton and his wife, Baroness Sun-Crichton." Rudy smiled diplomatically. "I should point out that I represent Marshal O'Donnell solely in his capacity as the head of Human Forces Command and not as the Viceroy of the Hynerian Frontier Province."

"Viceroy O'Donnell?" Darlan said suddenly. "I had understood his title was governor."

Rudy smiled. He enjoyed knowing more than someone else. "You hadn't heard? Marshal O'Donnell has done well as the governor of his province. So well that some Hynerian nobles became jealous. They decided to try to frame him for a bit of financial hanky- panky. Luckily Dominar Rygel has a very effective secret police. They discovered the plot and the miscreants were banished for a period of cycles. Dominar Rygel gave Marshal O'Donnell the title of Viceroy of the Hynerian Frontier Province to show his trust in him."

That was my boy, Buckwheat, all right. I'll bet the fancy new title didn't come with a raise in pay or more power.

Rudy gestured to the dark haired young woman sitting behind him. "I would be remiss in not introducing my aide, Colonel Kathleen O'Donnell. As I'm sure you know, she's a Sebacean who was adopted as a Peacekeeper cadet by Marshal O'Donnell and his wife."

Rudy continued. "Beside the Crichtons are Chiana and Julushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis, who more or less represent themselves."

Chiana cleared her throat loudly. "Rudy! You could at least get my name right."

Rudy looked nonplussed. "I beg your pardon? Are you not Chiana?"

Chiana handed over a data cube. "Please examine my passport."

Rudy quickly scanned it. "My apologies! Admiral, may I introduce Lady Chiana d'Nebari, of the Court of Dominar Rygel XVI."

Chi smiled at everyone. "Hi." She winked at the males across the way.

Rudy couldn't resist. "Has the lovely Joolushko been elevated to the nobility as well?"

Jool shook her head. "No, but you might wish to mention that I have the equivalent of five or six human doctorates."

Admiral Darlan introduced himself, his chief of staff, Captain du Glatigny, and the senior Welshman, Captain ap Owen and all his other officers. One of his officers was a Lieutenant Frederic de Gautier. Rudy had told us that he was Darlan's head of intelligence and a very good one. Rudy had also said that most of his experience was in the field rather than at a desk, but Rudy felt that was a plus when he worked for such a small task force. The lieutenant was a tall, rather slender sort with dark hair and eyes. He was good looking, as Chiana proved by flirting with him across the room. Of course he was male, so Chi would have flirted with him if he'd looked like Rygel's eema.

Darlan smiled and spoke. "Mr. Vergaah. We are very happy to have an opportunity to become Marshal O'Donnell's friends and allies. You'll find that our task force and the Forests of Bazil will be an asset to the Marshall."

Rudy held up his hands. "We are prepared to sign a treaty of alliance with you, Admiral, but only if you agree to move your task force to another solar system."

That provoked the expected explosion of conversation from the French. Everyone on that side was trying to talk at once and so no one could hear anything.

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" Rudy called loudly, finally settling them down. "It would be best if I explained everything from the beginning." The French settled down, but kept glaring at us. Rudy smiled and went on. "I'm afraid the problem is that Marshal O'Donnell has been too successful in this New Universe. Allow me to demonstrate." Rudy tapped the computer in front of him and a hologram of this part of the galaxy appeared between the two tables.

"Here, you can see the Artifact, or at least the part in this universe." A bright light lit up at the far left of the holo. "Not too far away is Marshal O'Donnell's base, the Arsenal solar system." Another light. "We're a bit deep in the Uncharted Territories, so we have a second base halfway between Arsenal and the major powers in the New Universe. It's called Base Two, originally enough." A third light lit. "Then we have the more civilized parts of the Uncharted Territories, then the Hynerians, the Delvian worlds over here, the Scarrans and their Charrid allies over there, then the semi-independent Kalish worlds, the Luxan worlds around here, the Ilanic and Scorvian worlds way over there, and then the Royal Planet furthest from the Artifact. There are of course many independent planets scattered about, such as the Forests of Bazil, here, and the Garden of Galil, right here."

"We did not come all this way for a geography lesson." Darlan said shortly.

"No, no, of course not." Rudy said gently. "I merely want to use this to explain our problems to you more easily." Darlan nodded and Rudy went on. "When we came here some years ago, that was, to the Great Powers, an end to itself. They only wanted to get rid of their excess military personnel and little else mattered. Once we left, we'd never be allowed back and no one else would be allowed to enter the New Universe except for a number of diplomatic personnel from the Great Powers to keep an eye on us. A substantial fleet surrounding the Artifact in the Old Universe would keep the status quo intact."

"We know all of this." Darlan said testily.

"Yes, I know you do. However, once here, we found ourselves dealing with a variety of exotic and very wealthy civilizations. Very wealthy civilizations, if I may repeat myself. One of them is the Forests of Bazil, as I'm sure you know. The anti-aging drugs they produce for the Sebacean market are equally effective on humans. For a small proportion of humanity who have serious side effects from conventional human made drugs, they are a godsend. Suddenly it was seen that great amounts of money were to be made if there was trade between the two universes."

"But such trade was illegal." That was the young Lieutenant de Gautier. "At least where the Great Powers are concerned. Legally, no traffic was allowed between the two universes."

Rudy smiled. "And so the laws were changed. Now it is legal for ships from the Old Universe to trade with the New Universe. But, they may only go to Arsenal to trade." Rudy grinned slyly at the other humans. "Although you may be aware that not everyone honors that rule."

Darlan and his boys, who we knew had had dealings with a human weapons smuggler, kept perfect poker faces.

"However, the Marshal is now required to patrol the whole area from the Artifact to Arsenal, and on occasion he must escort ships who have somehow strayed. And we anticipate further changes in the law so that we'll have more human ships to convoy."

"Now we must consider the Marshal's position as the Viceroy."

"I thought you were here representing him in his other capacity." Darlan said quickly.

"Oh, indeed. Indeed. But we must consider his position in all things. As Viceroy he was put in charge of one hundred and fifty one planets on the frontier between the Hynerian Empire and the Charrid worlds of the Scarran Empire. These worlds had long been ravaged by Charrid raiders and were more of a drag on the Hynerians than a help. By garrisoning each world with good troops, setting up orbital defenses, providing convoys for merchantmen, and strong task forces to hunt down any raiders, the Viceroy turned a liability into an asset. A small asset, mind you, but an asset none the less. And an asset that has a great deal of promise."

Rudy grinned. "As we all know, no good deed goes unpunished. Another twenty six planets have "rejoined" the Hynerian Empire's Frontier Province and more that forty wish to "rejoin". This is putting an enormous strain on our resources."

"Rejoining the Empire?" Darlan asked.

"Dominar Rygel X, known as Rygel the Great, made some rather extensive territorial claims back in his day. Mostly they were ignored by the Charrids and others. But Dominar Rygel XVI is quite happy to use these to expand his domains. His appetites are quite remarkable."

Tell me something I didn't know about old Spanky.

"Then we have the Marshal's obligations as head of Human Forces Command. He has made agreements with many worlds, such as Garden of Galil, and accepted fealty over others, such as Jolo. The purpose of this is to set up bases to protect the trade routes in this end of the galaxy. The Eidelon Peace between the Peacekeepers and Scarrans is holding, but there are problems. The number of remaining Eidelons is small for the task at hand and it appears that the Eidelons think in terms of centuries or perhaps millennia. So, in a thousand years, we may all be jolly, friendly people, but not now. Many Charrids have left Scarran Imperial service to go raiding. So for that matter have some Scarrans. The Peacekeepers, booted out of the Hynerian Empire and Delvia itself, are fracturing. It isn't just the Scorpius and Grayza factions, either. Luxan warlords, no longer fearing a Scarran invasion, are sending out raiders as well. The Scorvians and Ilanics seem to have been reduced to shooting at everyone. Even the Kalish seem to have started raiding. And there are the Tavleks, Zenetian pirates and many others who infest this area and make life miserable for one and all. We don't need to mention the many humans who also make our lives miserable."

Rudy glanced over to the French who were still staring at us coldly. "Every time we set up a base and begin escorting convoys, we get embassies from every planet that can get a ship to us asking for our help."

"All the more reason to keep the valuable Forests of Bazil well protected by my task force." Darlan snapped.

"If there were not an even more valuable planet that need protecting. The Forests of Bazil can be protected by Brother Saul's ships with some occasional help from us." Rudy countered.

That got Darlan's attention. "Explain, Mr. Vergaah, about this more valuable planet."

Rudy had him hooked.

"Have you ever heard of the Jezzail system?"

The question sent Darlan's officers to work on their computers. Everyone seemed to be shaking their heads. Finally, "I'm afraid not." Darlan admitted.

"It's far from here." Rudy tapped his computer and a light started blinking on the star map. "It's beyond the Scorvian and Ilanic sector. In fact it's been cut off for some decades by their war. The last ship from there arrived…" Rudy checked "…forty two years ago."

"The Jezzailians are a hive race, very rare in any universe. They're quite technologically advanced, especially in nano-technology and genetic engineering. They seem to be rather lacking in curiosity, though. They don't go out into the galaxy to trade although they have built interstellar ships. They wait for outsiders to come trade with them. If no one comes to trade, they don't seem to mind at all."

"You want us to protect the trade with the Jezzailains." That wasn't a question from Darlan, it was a statement and a correct statement at that. "Do you realize how impossibly far that solar system is from any HFC base?"

"Of course we do, which is why part of your job will be to help us set up a base or two between here and there. In fact we have your main base picked out. Do you know where New Gotland is?"

More frantic searching of French databases before, "No. We know of no such world in this universe."

Rudy smiled and nodded his head. "You are probably familiar with their leader, Gustav the Fifth, formerly King of Gotland back in the Old Universe. He was your ally. When The Wars ended, he was deposed and sought service with Human Forces Command. However, some one of his enemies paid off the captain of the ship he and his people were on." Rudy checked again. "Ah, yes. The Manchuria Maru. The ship's captain took the ship to a planet in the middle of nowhere and thoroughly sabotaged the ship's engines. He then took off in an FTL tender. King Gustav occupies part of the planet and has named it after his old home. Unfortunately he shares the planet with some Peacekeepers. Abandoned Peacekeepers, apparently. We don't know which faction their commander supports, but he gets no aid from other Peacekeepers."

"Many years ago, the former ruler of New Gotland, then called Fezzan, the Exarch, hired a band of Luxans and some non-Peacekeeper Sebacean mercenaries to help crush his opponents. Then his hired troops wanted more money. And more money. So the Exarch gathered all the loot he could and fled. His successor did the same thing. The planet has been fought over for the last fifty or sixty cycles and has been nearly wrecked."

The French huddled briefly. "How strong is this King Gustav?"

"He told Baron Crichton that he has ten thousand men and that the Manchuria Maru was crammed full of war materials. This is a bit of an exaggeration. He has a regiment of some four thousand people. However, the regiment is composed of soldiers from his old divisional storm battalions, his Shock Regiments and his Special Operations Groups. He also has a few hundred mercenaries. His troops are really quite good."

Rudy consulted his computer again. "As far as material goes, he has sufficient infantry weapons. For artillery, he has half a dozen light field guns. Armor is mostly lightly armored scout cars, perhaps fifteen or so, mounting nothing more than a 3 centimeter tri-barrel power gun. He does have three battle tanks. Lastly he has four aerospace fighters. They're based on the Manchuria Maru and rarely, if ever, leave orbit."

"As far as the Manchuria Maru being stuffed with war materials, I'm afraid that's an exaggeration as well. King Gustav has been able to get some of the planet's factories back into operation and is producing some weapons, munitions and equipment."

"Another four thousand or so of King Gustav's subjects are civilians. Most are the families of his troops, some are not. Another two thousand are former members of his government. Consequently, he has an excellent intelligence service, good police and internal security forces, and a wonderful propaganda department. I also understand he has a magnificent opera company and a truly spectacular symphony orchestra."

Darlan was looking angry. "He has no functional ships at all? No space based defenses? Nothing at all that could fight off a raiding space ship?"

Rudy sighed and nodded. "I'm afraid he has none of these things."

"And you want us to become your allies, base ourselves on nearly defenseless New Gotland , and escort convoys to a planet that no one has heard from in forty years?"

"Quite correct, Admiral Darlan."

"I should like to discuss your proposal with my officers." Darlan said coldly and walked out before Rudy could reply.

He was back in ten minutes. "I would require a great financial incentive to move my operations. I would need a subsidy equal to my current income from Forests of Bazil for a period of ten Earth years."

Rudy slowly shook his head. "The Marshal is aware that you will have a financial loss, at least initially. I should think that a subsidy of one year equal to half of your present income would suffice. Remember that as an ally, you would be able to draw on the resources of Human Forces Command, which you cannot do now, no matter how much you earn."

Darlan shook his head vigorously. "A year? It will take us that long to set up our operations and make an initial voyage to this Jezzail."

And so the bargaining was off and running. About the time they got to trading statistics on the futures market for Delvian pharmaceuticals, I looked over at Aeryn. She was about to fall asleep from boredom. Me too. I rose, "Sorry, folks, but Dominar Rygel has instructed me not to commit the Hynerian Empire to any financial obligations in this matter. You don't need me here now."

Actually what Sparky had said was, "Crichton, I know you'll frell things up if you do anything, so if you see anything that might cause a problem, let me know and I'll handle it."

Aeryn and I left. Not too surprisingly Chiana left, too. And so did Jool. I would have thought that she'd want to gather data for her next Ph.D. thesis. Something like, "A Statistical Analysis of Boring Human Meetings."

When we got outside Aeryn spoke to Chi. "Why exactly are you two here?"

Chi smiled slyly. "Don't you trust us, Aer?"

Aeryn just snorted.

Jool spoke up before something bad happened. "A new Scarran biological weapon has gotten loose, what with the Charrids deserting in droves and even Scarran Imperial units going rogue. It's deadly, in fact, it almost killed me. But there's a drink on New Gotland called tingue tea that cures it. I've analyzed the molecule that counter-acts the bio weapon and it's very complex. It'll be cheaper in the short run to buy tingue tea on New Gotland until the Delvians can grow the molecule in commercial quantities."

"And Chiana is with you because of her well known generous nature?" Aeryn asked sarcastically.

"Yeah! That's exactly why I'm with Jool. Plus the fact that I'm her friend."

Jool smiled and shook her head. "Chi thinks we'll find a lost treasure on New Gotland."

"Jool! Shush!" Pip said with a glare.

"Chiana, I've told you we'll need John and Aeryn's help, that is, if there really is a treasure."

"And whose pocket did you find the treasure map in?" Aeryn asked, still sarcastically.

Chi stamped her foot. "I got it square and fair. And as far as I'm concerned, I'll do this on my own. I don't need you three. And I'll laugh and laugh when I'm rich and you're not." With that, she walked off.

"How long do you think it'll take her to come back?" Aeryn asked.

"Not long." Jool said with a smile. "She had no breakfast this morning and she has no currency. It's lunch time. Shall we eat over there at that nice open air café?"

Aeryn laughed. "Where she can see us?"

Jool was right. Chi forgave us and allowed Jool to buy her lunch.

When we showed up the next morning we found that the financial end of the deal had closed the night before. Next up, apparently, was what kind of weaponry Admiral Darlan and his merry men were going to get.

"In addition to restocking our magazines and our holdings of spare parts, the upgrading of all of our ships, we'll need a minimum of two heavy cruisers. I'd suggest two of the new Shinano class, although something larger would work as well."

Rudy smiled at him. "Why not ask for the two Warspites?" When Darlan made no reply, Rudy went on. "The reason we need your help, and are willing to generously support you, is that we're short of ships and personnel. For that matter, I can't see how you could man two heavy cruisers with the personnel you have."

Darlan smiled back. "I have extra personnel who came aboard Wessex Lady and Amarillo. For the rest, I can man my two light cruisers with skeleton crews and use them to defend New Gotland."

"What part of we have no extra ships did I fail to explain to you?" Rudy asked in an exaggeratedly friendly manner.

"The Marshal has well over a hundred battleships. Do you mean to tell me that a man that powerful cannot spare two heavy cruisers?"

Rudy sighed dramatically. "Marshal O'Donnell has slightly over one hundred battleships. Of those, some fifty are modern, fast units that can stand in the line of battle. Thirty two of those are dedicated by treaty to the service of Dominar Rygel. That's the First Striking Fleet. Since all warships need to be maintained and upgraded from time to time, we need a total of thirty six modern battleships dedicated to the Dominar so we'll always have that thirty two. That leaves us slightly over a dozen for the Marshall's other duties. That's the Second Striking Fleet. That leaves some fifty other battleships. These consist of old, obsolescent battleships, lightly armored battle cruisers, light battleships, pocket battleships, second class battleships, system defense battleships that are heavily armed and armored but slow, slow, slow, in short, anything that really isn't up to facing a large determined enemy ship. These are formed into two-battleship divisions and form the basis for many of our task forces. These have to cover an enormous volume of space and nearly a thousand solar systems."

Darlan shrugged. "You act as if every enemy ship in the New Universe was a Warspite class. The oldest, slowest, most poorly armed and armored human battleship could destroy ninety nine percent of the raiders they'd face without even getting their paint singed."

And they were off. I managed to listen for another half an arn until I got really bored. Aeryn, on the other hand, was fascinated. That's my girl! Show her a pretty warship and she'll be putty in your hands. Neither Jool nor Pip had shown up so I excused myself and took a walk.

I wandered around for a couple of arns until I got hungry. Since there were humans stationed on this planet, I found that there were several little cafes that served human style food. Sort of. I stood outside one and someone called my name. "Baron Crichton?"