The Rangely Retreat
Director Pritchard pocketed his comm-link, a satisfied grin on his face. “All right,” he announced, holding up his hands to gain the attention of the delegates assembled in the main lodge. “That was Captain Jan Benton, commanding the Cachalot, an OWME cargo ship now in orbit overhead.” He waited for the group to quiet down before continuing. “The Cachalot, on my orders, rammed and badly damaged the unidentified ship that fired on the Skyhook, and on downtown Mountain View.”
A cheer rose up from the assembled delegates. Pritchard stood, grinning, until the noise subsided.
“We have now determined that the unidentified ship was a Grugell warship. The ship self-destructed shortly after the ramming, but the Cachalot has recovered several escape pods containing survivors, including the Grugell Captain. They will be brought to Mountain View by shuttle for questioning.”
“Hang ‘em!” came a shout from the crowd.
“No, I don’t think so,” Pritchard answered. “We’ve tried very hard to create a society where everyone – everyone – has basic rights. We’ve tried to create a civilized society, a government of laws, a civilized society that lives under the rule of law. The Grugell don’t understand that – as our new friend Clomonastik here tells me, they live as a lot of people on Earth once did, under the fist of a dictator. Well, we’re going to face them one day, as free people on Earth had to face the despots and dictators there, and fight to make all people free. We won that fight, and we’ll win this one, too. And in that fight, we’ll hold to our principles. The Grugell survivors will be questioned, but then any that wish will be returned to their home society, and any who wish asylum are welcome to stay here on Tarbos.”
Hector Gutierrez led the applause, which rapidly swelled to fill the lodge. Director Pritchard, grinning from ear to ear now, shouted over the noise: “Now, let’s get these last two items voted on!”
Vice President Gutierrez turned, still smiling, to see the junior Crider and his daughter approaching him, hand in hand.
“Mr. Vice President?” Crider the Younger was slightly nervous, but only slightly. “There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”
The smile faded from Hector Gutierrez’s face, and for the moment he ceased being the Vice President of the United States and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention for the Confederated Free Planets. For the moment, he was just a father.
“I have a feeling I know what about. Maria? I presume you’ve already answered?”
“Yes, Daddy. Yes.”
“Mike, I don’t suppose you’ll be interested in moving to Earth?”
“Actually, sir, we were thinking of living on Forest.”
“I thought you might be. You’ve got too much of your father in you, Mike. I don’t think you’d be happy on Earth.” He stopped and looked at both of the young people critically. “Well, I can’t say this is unexpected. Mike, I think you’ll make a fine husband for Maria. Maria, your Mom and I will miss you, but I can see already that you’re going to be quite happy on Forest.”
Behind him, he heard the elder Crider’s voice. “What’s going on here?” Mike Senior asked.
Mike the elder was surprised to hear Hector Gutierrez burst out in laughter. “Come on, bro,” the Vice President chuckled, slapping Mike on the back. “Let’s let the others get this thing organized. We’ve got something else to plan for at the moment.”
Two days later
The votes were taken, all measures passed, and the draft Constitution hyperphoned to the several worlds of the nascent Confederacy for ratification. Seated once more around a table in Mountain View’s Palace restaurant, both Criders and Gutierrezes had cause now to celebrate rather than deliberate. And once more, at Mike Senior’s insistence, Clomonastik III joined in the gathering. While the Grugell restaurateur was still amused at the human tradition of monogamy, he was more flattered than he cared to admit by the invitation.
“Well, I sent a hyperphone message to Jenny and Andrea on Forest with the good news,” Mike said, in between sips of a Tarbosian beer he’d grown to like. “So, in about six weeks, they’ll know what’s going on. And of course, it’ll be a done deal by then.”
“Not soon enough,” the younger Crider quipped. Maria, blushing, punched him in the shoulder.
“See? They’re acting married already.”
Sandra Gutierrez raised her glass. “Well, here’s to all of you who got this Constitution written and done. Now, we’ll have a government, we’ll have a Navy, and we’ll have some security.”
Clomonastik looked up from his plate at that. “Dear lady, do not be so quick to think all is well now. There was a history-making thing done here these past months, yes; but this Confederacy of yours is but the beginning of Galactic history, not the end.”
Hector Gutierrez had been thinking along the same lines. “You think the Grugell Empire won’t stop at trying to break up the Convention.”
“Indeed, I do not. We – and I do not use ‘we,’ lightly, my trusted friends – we have one rather large advantage. The Empire knows the location of Tarbos, but since there has been no detectable traffic in the area of Earth, we can presume that they have not located humanity’s home world yet. I assure you, that will change, in time.”
“Do you think they’ll strike at Earth itself?”
“Yes, Michael, my old friend, I am as certain of it as I am certain of the table before me. From my ‘conversations’ with my former inferior Kadastrattik, I have discovered that the Empire is currently operating under the presumption that Tarbos is the center of human operations – a presumption that we have just corrected for them – and I can assure you that they will be back here again, as well. It is only a matter of time, my friends. Relax not your vigilance yet.”
“We don’t intend to.” The Vice President of the United States tapped on the table with a finger as he spoke. “And we’ve gained ground ourselves; Bob Pritchard tells me that his technical wizards here are pretty close to figuring out the gravity field generators in the floor plates we salvaged from that Grugell ship, for one thing. It won’t be in time for the first generation of our Navy ships, but it will be soon enough. It’s just too bad we couldn’t recover whatever device they use to make the ships undetectable – a stealth device like that could be really valuable.”
“And difficult at best to obtain,” Clomonastik countered. “They are well-shielded from scanning, and rigged to self-destroy if they are tampered with.”
“You’re full of good news,” Mike Senior grouched.
“Only the truth, my trusted friend. But,” the Grugell inclined his head gracefully, “I must apologize to our young couple. This evening is a celebration in their honor, and I have sullied it with talk of conflict. We must speak no more of these things this evening. On the morrow, you two are to be wedded – and I, myself, am pleased and honored to have been invited to witness this ritual.” He chuckled, a strangely high-pitched chittering sound. “It is ironic, is it not, that a former shipmate and fellow Grugell Imperial Navy officer has ended up my enemy, his ship destroyed, and the survivors of his crew imprisoned, and all due to my aid. And here I sit, across the table from a former enemy who once tried as hard to kill me as I did him, and tonight I am so fortunate as to claim this man, his family and his associates as my friends!”
“And we’re fortunate to have you as our friend, as well,” Hector Gutierrez agreed. “Without you, we would have had a lot more trouble with that Grugell warship.”
“It was my privilege to do so,” Clomonastik responded with great solemnity.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Wonderful story
+1
wuv, twue wuv
Great story, Animal.
OT from ded thread: I, too, am getting the connection error occasionally with the site. I tried Firefox, Edge, and Chrome with similar results. I thought that it might be my O/S (Win7) but Tonio mentioned he was getting the same with his Win11 setup.
I suspect my Win7 is interfering with other sites as well. A local newspaper site gives me a 403 error and searches on Home Depot and Lowes are giving errors. All three seem to work fine on my Win10 machine.
Like the Northern Minnesoda Finns need an excuse to drink beer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Urho
Aren’t real Finns more likely to drink vodka?
Dem guys don’t need no excuse to trink beer.
Dey learnt it at home.
Da Fourscores alvays trank wodka or vhiskey becuz ve veren’t like dem Finn people.
On this day in 1984, Gary Plauché</a executed the subhuman piece of shit who had kidnapped and sexually abused his son, on live TV.
Remember his name.
Becoming closer to SF everyday….
I choose to take that as a massive compliment.
I beg to differ; he did what was right.
Look, he shot the guy on camera and was apprehended on the scene immediately. The law does not recognize “He needed killing” as an affirmative defense. Arguing for Jury Nullification would be a risky strategy, so starting with the insanity defense is the best option for the defense.
The Shrink testified what the court needed to hear for that defense to work.
Court-appointed psychologists are like any other legal expert witness – the best that money can buy.
Or, what UnCiv said.
My son likes to post a picture of Gary Plauche right before the shooting every father’s day.
I think I did well with that boy.
Skimming through that Plauche thing; at the time of the shooting he was unable to distinguish right from wrong. I’d say he was pretty much the only one with a good handle on it.
Hold on a minute. What of the conspirators? It ain’t a happy ending until they are swinging from lampposts or fed into a woodchipper.
According to the calendar there are more chapters to go.
Ignorant fools
Honda kicked things off on Thursday by halting development of the electric Acura RDX and the Honda 0 sedan and SUV, three models that were the company’s first ground-up EVs — but very little was shared with outsiders about them. It continued on Friday, with Automotive News reporting that Honda was going to stop production of the Prologue, a vehicle that was essentially designed and entirely built by GM.
The decision could backfire in a number of ways, but there are two that I’d argue are most important. By shelving EVs, Honda will fall farther behind in two of the biggest shifts sweeping the automotive industry: electric drivetrains and software-defined vehicles.
To Honda — and to many legacy automakers still early in the transition — an EV is just a car with a different drivetrain. I can imagine Honda executives thinking that they can wait out the awkward transition period and, when motors and batteries are fully sorted, simply swap out the fossil fuel bits. How hard could it be?
“What does Honda know that I don’t? NOTHING!”
two of the biggest shifts sweeping the automotive industry: electric drivetrains and software-defined vehicles.
Two of the most evil changes in modern automobiles.
So they’re trying to kill off the two stupidest grifts being run by the automotive industry on its customers?
*moves Honda to the top of the list for next car*
If only they made a long-roof. *le sigh*
I cannot wait for the presentation of the traditional Grugell wedding gift.
Honda is facing an identity crisis. At its core, it’s an internal combustion engine company. It makes really good engines, and that’s starting to matter less and less.
Other traits of its cars are also under assault. For years, the company has prided itself on making driver’s cars. They’re lightweight, efficient, and handle well. But when the car drives itself, what does a “driver’s car” even mean?
There is no place in the world for a diversified market. Everyone should be forced to buy what I deem to be desirable and appropriate. The rest is waste and futility.
*ripping hair*
I have the wrong length of gas tube. I measured to the wrong point on the bolt carrier group, and got the carbine when I needed the mid-length tube. They’re not expensive parts, but this sort of stupid mistake just pisses me off. Measuring things is kinda the easy part.
At least I didn’t install the roll pin. The replacement doesn’t come with one.
Random question:
Didn’t Biden draw down the strategic oil reserve and not replenish it?
That is what I remember.
Yes.
As inflation was out of control in 2022 he emptied it significantly to try and stem off ultra high gas prices.
He never put a drop of gas back in as far as I know, and was something Trump made a priority.
From Duck Duck Go AI….
Trump started to refill it, and didn’t get far, as far as I can tell.
Trump started to refill it, and didn’t get far, as far as I can tell.
That’s what I thought. They should have refilled it when prices came back down, but they didn’t. I don’t know who controls the money on that.
During his third voyage to the Pacific, Captain Cook dealt with painful rheumatism from hip to foot. A friendly Polynesian chief had 12 muscular women fall upon him and pummel his lower body until he was cured. It worked!
https://x.com/BenvenAnnunzio/status/2033376116984234343
Was it cured by requiring the amputation of the pulverized limb?
Being in close proximation to 12 sets of boobs made him forget all about it.
Instead of death by snu-snu, it was healing by snu-snu?