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[The source of this material was mainly Commander Kref Hinderon’s report and the Federation Enforcement Unit’s bodycams. The first few paragraphs are taken from Yol Merofort’s audible records. RBB]
Ya Okafor answered her communication device, ‘Okafor.’
‘Slindo here, Perfect. You can tell Yol Said that it is happening right now and the entire town of Sheladiz will be in temporary stasis. No one will be able to enter or leave.’
‘My goodness, that’s quick.’
‘We were concerned for the inspectors’ safety. Best that action be immediate.’
‘What’s happening?’
‘It’s in the hands of Commander Kref Hinderon. He heads a rapid-reaction force within our Federation Enforcement Unit.’
‘You think they’ll be successful?’
‘Yes. I’ll let you know when I’ve more news.’
‘Thank you, Slindo. I’ll call President Said now.’
««o»»
Commander Hinderon led an elite team of fifty Federation soldiers. They travelled in a high-speed stealth starship and were orbiting the Earth within two hours of receiving the authority.
This type of action was rare, and the force was only called upon ten or fifteen times in a year, despite the number of Federation worlds for which he was commander.
Actual terrorism was even more rare. The force was usually called into play to resolve kidnapping, primarily of a revenge or sexual nature. The last action had been to free a family who were having their lives threatened by another family who felt they had been unfairly treated. Previous to that, they were called into action to save a party of Selevitan females who, during a camping holiday, had been abducted for sexual exploitation on one of the system’s moons.
This was different. There was a distinct danger of death on this mission. Idealistic terrorists were unpredictable and the most violent of all people. With this group also being an unfamiliar alien species, great care would be needed. Nothing would be left to chance.
While the ship sped its way to the Orion spur and into the system of Sol, Commander Hinderon ran through the plan with his troops. Each had a personal weapon for emergencies, but if things went well, they’d not be needed.
The commander’s superior on Arlucian had been very clear about what was expected here. Everything would have to work perfectly. A successful rescue was paramount.
The ship slid out of Earth orbit and descended towards the north of Iraq.
‘We want the absolute centre of the town,’ said the commander.
‘Yes sir, there it is now, just the other side of the river. I’ve activated the cloak. We’ll not be visible,’ said the ship’s captain.
‘Take us to one hundred metres and hover.’
[I have used Earth measurements here for continuity. RBB]
From the ground, no one would probably have noticed anything unusual, but a trained observer might have seen that the background clouds were distorted and shimmering as the cloaking device diverted the light around the ship. The vessel came to rest above the geometric centre of Sheladiz at a height of one hundred metres.
‘Sergeant, activate the stasis field!’ barked the commander.
Twenty seconds later, the sergeant said, ‘Stasis activated, sir.’
‘Where are our people, corporal?’ asked the commander as he peered over a three-dimensional map of the town.
Another soldier replied, ‘In the building I’ve highlighted. They’re in a basement area.’
‘Corporal. You and ten troops with me!’ said the commander, moving back from the cockpit and into the body of the ship.
The twelve soldiers stood over a rectangular panel in the floor.
‘Drop us!’ he said, and the floor panel opened. The troops fell through the floor, accelerating to the midpoint and decelerating until they touched down in the street below.
There were a number of people nearby who’d been shopping at the market stalls for what looked like fruit and vegetables. They were frozen in position, unable to complete their strides, a child was immobile in mid jump. The only parts of them which moved were their eyes. They were all shocked by what was happening to them, but the people who could actually see the troops were terrified by the fact that apparent alien invaders had arrived in the town.
Commander Hinderon’s squad comprised himself, a relatively human-looking alien from Distrada; the corporal and ten troops though, were aliens from all over the galaxy. Different colours, numbers of arms, legs, tentacles. Short and tall, thickset and slender.
It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine what was going on inside the villagers’ heads as they were gripped by the stasis field, unable to react or even speak, let alone run or hide.
‘This way!’ said the commander and the squad followed him down an avenue as the local people they passed did their best to cringe away, with, of course, absolutely no success.
They turned down a side street and came to a set of steel doors set into a pale yellow-washed wall.
‘Open it!’
Two soldiers projected a rectangular shape onto the gate. It projected a brilliant light. There was a build-up of some electronic charge which began as a slight crackle and increased until it was almost painful in its intensity, like the noise of the lift-off of a giant rocket. The projected area melted into a pool of metal on the driveway. They entered the compound.
Inside, two fighters were standing, relaxed, leaning on their weapons.
‘Those two!’ said the commander and they vanished with their guns. ‘Check the van.’
While two soldiers opened the minibus, the rest of the squad approached the villa. Such a jolly looking place considering the purpose for which it was being used. It had large windows, a terracotta roof and contrasting salmon and lemon walls. The corporal opened the front door. Another fighter was standing just inside. He, too, vanished. The ground and first floors were searched, resulting in four more dematerialised fighters.
The corporal tried to open a door leading from the hallway. It was locked. The same projection device was used to disintegrate the lock and handle. They were faced with a flight of stairs leading downwards. At the bottom, two more fighters vanished with their weapons and another locked door barred their way. It was similarly easily opened and, inside, were Yol Serin and Ya Verolmoron, also in stasis. They, too, vanished.
‘On the double. Back to the ship!’ said the commander and the squad made their way, at a run, out of the compound and back to the original location where they’d first arrived.
‘Form up!’ said the commander, and when they were in a compact squad he said, ‘Elevate!’
As if by magic, they floated upwards, disappearing into the shimmering, fluctuating, hazy patch of sky, to the relief of any townspeople who were able to see the action.
««o»»
Commander Hinderon, a sergeant, the corporal and two other members of the squad, made their way to the back of the ship and opened another room. Inside, on the left, the inspectors were being treated by a medical squad. On the right was a small room where all the weapons were piled including knives, grenades, and other devices the fighters had had in their possession. At the far end of the room were fourteen apprehensive terrorists.
The commander leaned into the medical area and asked, ‘Which one is the leader?’
Yol Serin stood and indicated the man with the chequered keffiyeh. The commander walked up to him.
‘You are under arrest for kidnapping and assaulting Federation inspectors and the murder of ten human soldiers. Do you understand?’
The man shrugged.
‘Call Ya Unsela!’ said the commander. The corporal ran towards the front of the ship.
A minute later, a Terotone female entered the secure room. She stood about one and a half metres high and was vaguely humanoid in appearance, but it was difficult to look at her directly. She phased in and out of visibility, never quite disappearing, but never being entirely solid either.
‘Ya Unsela, please advise this person that he is under arrest and ascertain his name,’ said the commander.
She spoke in perfect esponged Arabic, but the leader did not give his name. Her phasing stopped momentarily, recommenced and he said, ‘Fadhil El Moghadam.’
‘The names of all of his terrorist faction who live within five kilometres except those who are present in this room,’ said the commander.
Ya Unsela phased again and El Moghadam began spouting a list of names which the corporal entered into a device he was carrying.
When El Moghadam stopped talking, Ya Unsela began to phase normally.
‘How many, corporal?’
‘One hundred and fourteen, sir.’
‘Elevate them to cell two.’
The commander walked to a viewing area which opened into a second secure cell behind the main one. It began to fill with shocked and fearful Iraqis. Within a minute, it contained all one hundred and fourteen men and women, including four dead bodies.
‘Return the dead, corporal.’
The four dead bodies vanished from the room.
Ya Unsela walked to the viewport and told the new arrivals they were under arrest for acts of terrorism.
The commander gave the order to lift the stasis field, freeing all the innocent people from the town. The ship returned swiftly to orbit.
««o»»
‘Ya Okafor?’
‘Yes, Yol Merofort.’
‘The exercise is complete. Our people are safe and well. We also have one hundred and twenty-four terrorists in captivity. You can let President Said know, and the Ambassador would like to see the permanent members of the Security Council in the conference room to report back to them.’
‘Yes, Yol Merofort. Well done, I’ll inform President Said, contact the others and we should all be there in a few minutes.’
««o»»
The Ambassador sat at the head of the table as the others arrived and took their seats. Beverages, drindle, and fruit juices were made available.
Ambassador Moroforon said, ‘I’m pleased to inform that our inspectors were safely recovered unharmed. One hundred and twenty-four terrorists were detained. Yol Merofort will now tell you how it was done.’
The powder blue ape described in detail the nature of the Federation Enforcement Unit, how it had carried out the plan and discovered which of the local people were terrorists.
‘How certain are you that they were all terrorists?’ asked President Meunier.
‘One hundred per cent. Ya Unsela was able to read Fadhil El Moghadam’s mind and extract the information. Four of the names were not strictly part of the ISIS group, but were involved on the fringes,’ said Yol Merofort.
‘What are we going to do with them?’ asked President Cheung.
‘Well, this is why I’ve called this meeting. We could hand them over to your authorities, but it’s possible, with your justice system, that many of them could escape punishment,’ said the Ambassador. ‘Alternatively, we could punish them all on your behalf. Those who carried out the actual murders of the UN troops and Peshmerga would receive extended sentences followed by lifetime robot monitoring. The remainder would receive four years and we would give the four fringe members seven days, then release them into their community to tell others what happened.’
‘That means the ones who killed all of those brave troops end up reading books for the rest of their lives!’ said President Spence.
‘It is a greater punishment than you might think, Yol Spence,’ said Ya Mistorn, settling herself in the middle of the table. ‘And they’ll be unable to hurt anyone ever again.’
‘Surely all the others, when they’re released, will cause even more trouble in revenge. These people have a revenge culture,’ said President Ivanov.
‘That is completely up to Earth, Yol Ivanov,’ said the Ambassador.
‘How do you mean, Ya Moroforon?’
‘If you join the Federation, the culprits will be unlikely to follow the same path, because our detection systems are extremely accurate. They’ll know they’ll be caught. Giving up your freedom on a wasted cause is a somewhat foolish pursuit,’ said the Ambassador.
‘Does the system work on all crimes?’ asked Prime Minister Hood.
‘Yes. In the first few days of membership crime increases, but then we find the number of crimes committed drops like a stone. Within five years everyone will realise that there’s no point to it,’ said Yol Merofort, ‘especially when you can live very well without risking your freedom.’
The Council members were suddenly very quiet.
Eventually Jack Spence broke the silence. ‘You’re offering Earth a system which will stop all crime throughout the planet?’
‘Well, not quite,’ said Ya Mistorn. ‘If someone kills someone, we can’t stop the crime, only punish the criminal. There’ll be crimes, but premeditated crimes for individual gain will soon disappear.’
‘That would be an enormous benefit. Does that mean corruption will be detected and we can be sure that random acts of violence and rape will be certain to be punished?’ asked Perfect Okafor.
‘Yes,’ said Yol Merofort. ‘We’ve already been observing, in many of what you call third world countries, corruption is holding the general population back. No leader will be able to accumulate wealth, nor the petty officials who have to be bribed to obtain permissions. Almost all officials in central African countries, for instance, are corrupt to some degree or another. A few weeks stasis will rid them of the habit. Your world will improve beyond belief. Your own charities estimate that as much as twenty-five per cent of all aid is lost owing to corruption.’
‘But as part of that, the wealthy must give up their wealth?’ asked President Spence.
‘Yes. I know this worries you, but it will be in the interests of the wealthy people too. Everyone will have enough to live rewarding lives. What will be lost is greed, selfishness, and the dreadful lack of compassion you currently have in your populations,’ said the Ambassador.
‘Seems too good to be true,’ said President Spence.
««o»»
[I can now add that the material which I used to tell of the attack and capture of the Federation inspectors north of Sheladiz in chapter 18, came from UN soldier bodycam film and the personal reports of Yol Serin and Ya Verolmoron. Providing that information earlier would have given away that they were safely rescued. RBB]