Chapter 2

Introducing Governor Kellen and General Tolten...I'm thinking about deleting this story :-

      Governor Phillip Kellen sat reading a report in his red leather chair. He paused to 4look out the large bowed windows of his chamber over the city of Valquette. He loved the city. He was a born Minoan; resourceful, resilient, gregarious, and charismatic. His 65 years of life was marked with selfless service to his planet. He had seen the city of Valquette prosperous with trade; he had seen her ravished by pirate raids, and he had seen her nearly burnt to the ground during the Minoan war. He had personally confronted Admiral Raul Piquet, a man he regarded as little more than a military despot and a terrorist.

            Kellen began his career as a professional politician after 4 years of working as a lawyer in the Minoan city of Aveena. He was 28 upon entering the Provincial Parliament as a representative minister for the canton of Aveena, a position he kept for nearly 2 decades before entering the realm of the executive branch. At 47 he was appointed attorney general of Minoa, a position he held throughout the pirate conflict and until the outbreak of the Minoan war.

            Kellen had always been an outspoken critic of Piquet as a politician. He never believed that military men had a place being at the helm of an entire nation. He found that they were all imbued with a pride that sought personal glory and conquest above the good of their people. Such ideals were acceptable on the battlefield, but held no place in government. When Piquet was elected to the position of Viceroy, Kellen immediately resigned as attorney general to focus on winning the office of Viceroy back in the next round of elections. That next round never came as Piquet entered open conflict with the Terran Republic, halting the electoral process indefinitely.

            Outraged with the movement, Kellen himself declared war on Piquet’s administration. During the course of the war he sued nearly ever Minister of the executive branch of the Minoan Provincial Government on counts of fraud, embezzlement, larceny, defamation, and any other crime for which they could justifiably accused. The process controversial crusade cost the Minoan Government nearly two million Minoan Credits. Finally he was imprisoned under the charge of treason. He sat out the rest of the war in Valquette’s Fort Dragos until marines of the Grand Navy stormed it in 1996. Upon his release from the fort’s prison, the Terran Republic awarded him The Crystal Cross, the highest honor available to a civilian, for his legal action against the Piquet regime; and granted him the position of Governor of Minoa for the duration of the colony’s restoration.

            Kellen sighed uneasily. He knew that there was still widespread discontent with the Terran Republic on the part of the public. The fight wasn’t over, not by a long shot, and Kellen knew it. The ceasefire of Valquette signed in 1996 by Piquet before his death slowly evolved into the treaty of Valquette. The Treaty of Valquette had many stipulations, the largest of which being that the Minoan Military was disbanded and replaced with the Minoan Self-Defense force along with the Grand Military of the Terran Republic being installed as the overseeing body of the Minoan Government.  The people of Minoa hated these terms and had, for the three years the war had been over, been clamoring for change.

            Kellen believed in the Terran Republic. Their methods on Minoa, while strict, were necessary, and he understood that. Minoa’s fight for separation posed a major threat to the military, economic, political, and social well being of the Terran Republic. Had Minoa fallen away; Athens, Sparta, Delphi, and the others would have rebelled as well. The fight wasn’t about oppressing the people of Minoa or keeping control of the ore production and crystal mining; while these operations were indeed important, the goal had always been preserving the republic.

            “Governor Kellen,” a voice piped from a speaker in the armrest of Kellen’s chair, “General Tolten is here to see you.”

            “Thank you, Sophie, send him in,” he responded as he held down a button underneath the same armrest.

            The oaken doors to his office swung open. On either side of the door were stationed two provost marshals gripping long energy rifles that were crossed at their bayonets. Beyond the two men, Kellen could see a tall, rotund figure in a military man’s uniform. The electrified bayonets of the energy rifles sparked as they moved past each other, back to the sides of the guards.

            The tall, fat man waddled into Kellen’s office, assisted greatly by a long cane. “Guten morgan, herr Governor!” the man wheezed as he approached a chair near Kellen’s desk.

            “Morning to you, General Tolten,” Kellen smiled as he turned back to his tablet computer, “What’s the word from the Grand Army this day?”

            “Little time to waste, Herr Governor,” Tolten stated tersely, “please, may I sit down?”

            Kellen obliged him by motioning towards the nearby chair. “What’s so pressing, General?”

            “TRS Victory is leaving the Terran Central Dockyards within the hour, they’ll be here within two days. We need to start organizing a security force, Herr Governor.”

            Kellen looked up as the prodigious man threw himself into the chair. “Minoan Planetary Guard units,” he said.

            “Excuse me, Herr Governor? Planetary Guard for a Terran Republic landing? That’s unheard of, and as a General of the Grand Army of the Terran Republic, I have to disagree with the decision.”

            “And why’s that, General?” Kellen asked as he set his stylus down on the glossy surface of the desk.

            Tolten puckered his lips and looked on in silence as Kellen clasped his hands. He felt a trickle of sweat roll down onto his forehead from underneath his tri-corner hat.

            “Well?”

            Tolten laughed nervously. “Well, Herr Governor, I don’t need to remind you that the war ended not more than 3 years ago. I believe it would be unwise to allow the only security presence at the drydocks to be Minoan Military personnel.”
            “Why?”

            Tolten was dumbfounded at Kellen’s unflinching questioning. “Well—.”

            “You can’t trust us, General?”

            Tolten hung his head and nodded slightly.

            Kellen laughed amusedly. “General, the Terrans are going to have their 100 gun flagship and Grand Navy Marines. All I ask is that you let me have the Planetary Guard there. Just as a show of good will.”

            “Herr Governor,” Tolten coaxed.

            “No, Tolten!” Kellen yelled. “D****t, man! You even have your provost marshals as the guard of the Provincial Parliament building! The damned ambassadors will have their personal security team, I assure you. But let the Planetary Guard provide overwatch!”

            Tolten sighed. “We can arrange this, Herr Governor, but you must be prudent in selecting the security overseer. Choose your most loyal officer.” He looked up. “The Highlander incident has caused us to lose faith in you.”

            Kellen twisted his head to the side. “Highlander incident?”

            “Four months ago, a team of Highlanders of the Grand Military were sent to Fort Dragos to perform something called overwatch recon. They didn’t infiltrate the complex, as that would violate the treaty, so they camouflaged themselves and hid on a nearby hillside. They employed infrared, night vision, and amplified microphones to gather information for Military Intelligence Sector. They disappeared, Herr Governor. We haven’t heard from them since.”

            Kellen slowly shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

            “It was on a need-to-know basis, Herr Governor,” Tolten said as he slowly stood up and made his way to the door, “and you didn’t need to know until now. It’s a warning. It will come up in the negotiations. You have four days, Governor. Find your best man.”

            Tolten banged his cane on the oak doors and once again, the Provost Marshals outside pulled them apart. He moved out and rounded the marble corridor, out of site.

            The doors shut and Kellen sat, frozen in shock. It surely couldn’t be the Planetary Guard. Those Highlanders would make short work out of them, he thought. He shook off the thought. He intended to kill both of these birds using a single stone. Picking up his stylus, he activated his microphone once more.

            "Sophie," he said

           "Yes sir?" her melodic voice responded.

           "Call for Colonel Nathan Harris, would you? Make it quick."

           "Yes sir, Governor."

           "Thank you, Sophie," he said as he deactivated the mic. He tapped the screen of the tablet computer with his stylus, intending to get some work done. Yet he only could find the ability to pause and gaze out the large window, fearing for the city below. Fearing for his home.