Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) by Sid Kar Page B

don’t mean a
revolution, I mean protests in the street. The Republican Guard, an officer
controlled and officer loving force would love to shoot down peoples. Don’t
give them an excuse. I will fight the battle in the senate; you fight it on the
streets. All hail the people.”
        “All hail the people,” the crowd
shouted and Solus walked down the podium and disappeared in the crowd.
        “All damn Solus Varus,” some junior
officer from a stage below said and many repeated after him and booed at the
screen loudly.
        “Silence,” Bakus said, “the army is
apolitical and we do not support or oppose any particular senator. We follow
orders.”
        The room quieted down but Remus saw
anger on the faces of many officers and resignation on others.
        “We need to have that private talk
now,” Bakus said to Remus. Bakus and Remus exited the stage by climbing down to
the floor and they left the command room through a small corridor. Bakus led
him to a small office and closed the door from inside.
        “Your room?” Remus asked looking around
at an empty room with few papers and pens on the table.
        “No, one of many quiet rooms for
privacy,” Bakus said, “Vice-Chancellor, what did the Regional Star Commander
say?”
        “Promised help but has to go through
the formalities of analyzing and verifying our data,” Remus said and then over
the next fifteen minutes told him the events of his trip and the contents of
his conversations. Bakus scratched his chin and thought silently for a few
minutes after Remus had finished.
        “What forces here do not want Starfire
Fleet’s presence?” Remus asked.
        “The ‘peoples senator’ Solus Varus,”
Bakus said, “you heard him loud and clear.”
        “Except he is not part of the
government and wouldn’t have had knowledge of my secret trip,”
        “That is true,” Bakus said, “there are others,
more quiet, but more dangerous. There were rumblings in the army that this war
had provided a great opportunity to build up a large number of battleships and
become a space power unto ourselves. They resent relying on outside help.”
        “Battleships take money and resources
and we don’t have a lot of them,” Remus said, “the republic is in huge debt and
Solus and his followers won’t allow a single tax to be raised.”
        “If we could catch the people behind
your assassin then the opponents of Starfire protection would have eggs on
their face,” Bakus said, “That will buy us time.”
        “I have appointed my capitan Jag Manus
to flush them out,” Remus said.
        “One man?”
        “He was a former detective.”
        “Do you need army’s help?”
        “No,” Remus said, “There are only three
individuals I trust completely: Chancellor Augus, you general and capitan Jag.”
        “I agree,” Bakus said, “Let’s keep this
news under wraps till we know who was behind it and then we will pound on
them.”

Chapter 8 – Commission
     
    Vice-Commodore Raptor Warwyk neatly combed
his hair in the mirror. Usually, he didn’t bother but today he would take no
chances. He put on his red hat and straightened out the hard visor and saluted
himself. He carefully examined his clothes to ensure that everything was in
order. He was wearing a rose red shirt with silver epaulets, gold buttons, and
medallions and insignia on both sides of his chest. His shirt was tucked into
the large, wide black belt with a symbol of the composite bow over the belt buckle.
His neatly pressed black pants went under the shirt and he was wearing polished
black combat boots.
        He looked at the clock above and still
had ten minutes before his friend and fellow officer Colonel Tollvyk would pick
him up. Raptor stepped out of the bathroom and looked at the furlough card. Not
that it meant a lot since he had signed it himself. He laughed at the thought.
        Raptor Warwyk was a