Chapter 16: Planning for War

~~ October - Week 42 & Tychy Week 7 ~~

The interrogations had broken up for lunch.

Lee had told the Captain, Sean, Gary, Philip and Essco to be as evasive as possible and to say to any questions, they didn’t wish to answer, “That it was in the log.” They had agreed.

All four men weren’t happy with the questions. They were sure the visitors weren’t any happier with their answers. Essco had just come back from his interview when he had found Lee with Zan.

Zan thought at Lee, ‘Lee, it’s Zan here, can we come and talk to you?’

‘Bring them to my room the wizard’s way,’ she thought back to him and sent him a picture of the hall. Zan grinned. Oh yeah, the lady definitely had a plan.

He hugged Dye and William to him and thought about where Lee said to come to. The appeared in the hall, and the door opened to them, letting them in. Sean, Lee, Kyle, Tony, Debora, Philip, Nicko, Ulani, Gary, Allan, Haf, Bentley and the Captain were already there.

Lee came up to the three and hugged them all. To William’s surprise, she even kissed his cheek. “Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials guys,” she said. “Come join the war party.”

Lee offered them coffee and Zan and Dye got on the bed behind Essco after Dye hugged her dad. The room was full, with so many people in it. The other girls were sitting on their partner’s laps.

Lee was pacing up and down the small space left. Everyone else drank the coffee and waited. General Lee was in war mode. Sean smiled at her then at Tony and Kyle. They grinned back. They loved watching Lee in action.

No one in the room doubted for an instant that they wouldn’t do exactly as she asked, no matter how weird. Even Zan and Allan could fell the total faith in her the others had.

Lee stopped and looked at her troops. She knew she couldn’t let these people down. She just had to hope her plan worked.

“As most of you have probably guessed they plan to take us all back to Earth. Some of us they plan to prosecute with charges of dereliction of duty, endangering others, causing death and whatever else they can come up with,” she said.

“However, they have to get us back to Earth first. I believe they plan to take over this ship and send the soldiers to collect our people. I’m not sure what they want to do about Utopia, probably try to set up some trade negotiations and goodwill crap.”

“They will, however, try to claim Harmony as their own. We need to convince them that these plans are a bad idea. I, for one, will not be going back to Earth on their terms.”

Lee cast her eyes over the group. “They have bought lawyers to try to make out that they have the right to dictate to us. I know we all signed onto this ship under specific contracts, but I have reviewed those contracts.”

She paced a little more and then stopped and looked at everyone again. “I’m not a lawyer, but I have also had Bentley, Ulani and Haf look at the contracts. For the scientists, it’s easy. They need to simply hand a signed resignation to the Duke.”

“For the ship’s crew, it’s a little harder. We are supposed to sign our resignation and work out a week. Even if we sign them today, we still have to do what they want for seven days.”

The Captain interrupted, “I’m happy to accept backdated resignations Lee, and I’m quite sure Kyle could ensure they went into the system on the correct dates. They do not have access to our systems, thanks to Kyle.”

“Even though they have been trying to get in. Apparently, they don’t understand Wizard.” He grinned, “They couldn’t prove that the resignations hadn’t been in there the whole time.”

“Way to go, dude,” Kyle said to him. Everyone grinned at the Captain and agreed with Kyle.

Lee thought about this. “So why did we resign Captain?” she asked, playing devil’s advocate.

The Captain thought for a moment and grinned, “Well for the crew on Utopia this is easy. They resigned because they didn’t wish to come to Harmony. I also think you will find that not many of them plan to go back.”

Lee nodded. That was very believable, mostly because they weren’t here. “What about the rest of us?” she asked him.

Kyle answered, “Because we wanted to come here and get it set up for the company. But then decided we would stay. That’s why you sent the probe three weeks ago. I wonder how the resignations of everyone, including the Captain, got on that probe?”

Everyone looked at Kyle and Lee. They were wondering what the hell he was going on about. Lee grinned, “Little smart arse, how do you know I sent a probe, and what was on it?”

Kyle tapped his nose.

Ulani said horrified, “Oh God, Lee. You could get into so much trouble for falsifying signatures.”

Indignantly Lee said, “I did no such thing. You all signed the forms; I just hadn’t sent them. Actually, you all signed them about twelve weeks ago.”

Everyone looked at each other. What happened twelve weeks ago? Suddenly Dye laughed, “Yes, I even remembering filing them. Unreal, how could I forget.” She laughed even harder and grinned at her father, who smiled back.

Allan and Zan had no idea what the fuck they were talking about.

Lee grinned at everyone. Some were still mystified, but then Ulani said, “I was wondering why there were all those printed forms to start the accounts. Oh, my goodness. For once I didn’t even read them, they just looked like typical bank jargon. What else did I sign Lee?”

“Hmm, you agreed to be a shareholder of Futura Holdings and that if you changed your mind and went back to Earth to live you would accept payment in gold for them. It was just that, and the resignation, wasn’t it Dye?”

Dye nodded in agreement and said, “Yes, they were the two forms you added. The others were just bank jargon about privacy and who could access your accounts and personal liability of debts. I believe these are common in your world, as well.”

The Captain looked at Lee for clarification, “You have all of these documents on file and a copy winging its way to Earth?”

Lee nodded and answered, “Yep, they are all scanned in and on a digital file. There are triplicates on paper in two locations and one on the probe. The B&C office is very efficient.”

“If anyone wishes to change their mind, they will need to sort it out with the company. I got you all sacked,” she grinned at the stunned crew.

Everyone was more than happy with her explanation and no one present intended to complain. None of them wanted to go back, and they already had jobs and new lives here that they were happy to continue with.

Essco was still worried. He had decided that he needed to fess up. He didn’t want to give up his new life here, and against his typical nature, he felt it was the right thing to do. As much as he hated admitting that he was a bloody moron, he just knew he had too.