Chapter 13

Frankly I was disappointed with what followed after my “Trial”. Senator Johnson and Kasamir Singe were arrested by the FN protection Bureau. They were under investigation for the crimes they had accused me of, in their case it was called piracy. There was an additional investigation, by Fleet Intelligence as well as a dozen other agencies that had jurisdiction, into the private acquisition of several state of the art MIRV nuclear explosive devices. I had been asked, very politely, for the return of the missiles under my control. I didn’t outright refuse, I didn’t agree either. I just didn’t return their call. In a stunningly intelligent display, they didn’t push the issue.

Once all the celebrations and noise making were over and things seemed to return to normal. People were coming back from their hideouts. Not all of them. Some folks had been accepted onto the independent mining operations. Others, once they saw how easy it could be, started looking for their own rocks.

Me? I wasn’t happy. My main disappointment in my new position as station master was in the lack of any worthwhile jobs to do. I very quickly found out that the position was mainly a figure head. As I was sitting there longing for the good old days. Knocking around the belt. Grabbing rocks during the day. And partying back on the “Yankee Fork” at night. I missed the hustle and smells of the flight deck and the shove when launching. It was during this walk down memory lane when I was advised of a personal in-coming message. I told comm I would take it and it was piped to my monitor.

What appeared was a male that was perfect in every way. Perfect hair, complexion, teeth. The height of stylish jacket, shirt and tie. And a perfectly engaging smile’

“Hello Colonel, you don’t know me, But I am the replacement for Senator Johnson.”

“Oh really? They haven’t even started his trial yet, Let alone held an election.”

The man on my screen chuckled, “Well Colonel, Elections are mainly for the viewing pleasure of the masses. It gives them the illusion of choice in their leaders. In reality, I was picked as Senator Johnson’s replacement long before your trial even started. Your actions advanced a timetable a bit, but it had already been decided that the good senator needed to retire.”

“Interesting, I wonder what those masses would have to say about this conversation.”

“Tsk, Tsk Colonel. Once bitten twice shy as they say. We are using some new technology in this transmission. You have shown a distressing habit of recording conversations. But in this case, any recording, video or audio, will only show static and incomprehensible noise. My compatriots and myself are well protected in this case. But this is a small matter. I have called you today to see if we can come to some kind of mutual agreement. An accommodation so to speak.”

“Go on.”

“Well Colonel, you don’t mind if I call you colonel, do you? It was your rank after all. But during the trial you insisted on being called Captain Sheridan. I assure you, I am flexible. I’ll use whatever name or title you want.”

“Call me Captain Sheridan. Colonel Montgomery died on Deimos in that hell hole called ‘Windemere’.”

“Interesting. Most of the people I know would have wanted the superior address. But as you wish, Captain Sheridan. As I was saying, my compatriots and I would like to come to an agreement, an accommodation. Something that would be of mutual benefit.”

“Well now, as we have settled what I am to be called, what should I call you. Mysterious stranger is too melodramatic. Johnsons heir may be accurate, but tasteless.”

“My apologies Captain. My name is Jefferson Davis Simpson. You can call me Jeff if you prefer. I would hope that we can become friends.”

“OK Mr. Simpson, What do you offer me? and what do you want from me?”

“Well Captain, Let’s start with what you already have. You already have the whole asteroid belt, sort of. Granted you have evicted the Kennedy / Morrison folks. And they were the big boys on the block, so to speak. But there are a lot of other folks out there, mining and refining and making money. At least until now. Now there are a lot of people who are wondering what your future plans are. And I would like to take some time and present a plan to you.”

“Go ahead.”

“First of all, you can keep the belt. The whole thing. Lock, Stock and Barrel. But as they say, you can’t eat iron or breath copper. You will need to sell your ore and refined metals to someone. And the only player in town is us. Now we don’t care how you arrange things in the belt, keep it the way it was, or set yourself up as a middleman. All we care about is getting the ore. As I said, you can keep the belt, we don’t care. Just continue to sell your ore to us.”

“We will continue to pay good money for it, in fact if you feel the need to raise the prize, we won’t object. Just, please not too high, or too fast. We’ll just pass the cost onto OUR customers and call it a tax or something. That is unless you irritate us. Then we’ll blame you. Collectively as the belt miners. Or you personally as the Demon of Mosley. Either way, we come out smelling like a rose. And you’ll be our goat.”

I listened to Simpson’s sales pitch. He was oily slick and politically correct. I could control the belt, and I knew it from the get go. But my plan had been nothing more than stopping the pirates and saving as many life’s as I could in the process. I’d had some failures that I deeply regretted and would always have them haunt me. But overall, I succeeded. People were returning to the station and their disrupted lives. Were they looking forward to a better life? Well that was up to them, and I’ll leave it to them. Myself, Well, I’ve got better things in mind.

“Mr. Simpson, “ I started, “ As far as the belt goes, I never considered it ‘MINE’. But this little episode has shown a lot of people how to stand up for themselves. I’m more than willing to let things go back to the way they were. It’s obvious that you and your owners think that I did all this for my personal benefit and profit. I didn’t. All I wanted to do was help out a bunch of helpless and stupid people. I’m pretty sure that I did this.”