Reaching For The Stars

Two hours later they were back at the police headquarters with the students as promised. They were all shown up the Commander`s office and he spent the better part of two hours talking to the group, telling them all the background information on the case. The two living terrorist`s had been involved with several high profile bank robberies on Drof and on several other planets. On one planet they had bungled the robbery and three people had died as a result. Chief Technician Rimbauld had joined them recently following his escape from custody on Earth, and he had virtually taken over as the head man of the outfit. They had done three other hostage takes with the same dummy explosive pack since Rimbauld had joined them, which made sense as Rimbauld was trained in the use of explosives. Two of these attempts had ended badly resulting in seven more fatalities. The third was the only successful hostage take as the company concerned had paid up and netted the gang several million dollars. The latest incident which had resulted in Rimbauld`s demise was the first time the gang had attacked the embassy of another planet, expecting rich pickings no doubt. The Commander had no sympathy for any of the gang, least of all, Rimbauld who got what he deserved, his only regret was that it should have happened sooner. He told the group that the two remaining men were to appear in a galactic court the following day and that Peter and Chris may be called to give evidence. The trial would take place in the city`s main court building, across the road from the police headquarters. The men would be judged by a panel of five people who all had legal qualifications, presided over by a senior judge, from Varianne as it was their embassy that had been attacked. The judge had arrived on Drof only a few hours before. The Drof legal system was the same as anywhere else in the federation now as new joiners to the federation were encouraged to adopt the standard legal system, replacing whatever system had been in place before joining. Earth had followed this soon after joining so all the students were familiar with the way the system worked. The juries of old, made up of normal citizens had been dropped in favour of the newer five person panel as now all panel members had to be legally qualified and lessened the chances of wrong convictions if a jury got things wrong. It also got rid of lengthy legal arguments in court, for the benefit of a jury who had no real idea of the legalities of a particular case. In cases like this where everything was fairly straight forward, accused people could expect to face the court in a matter of days rather than maybe waiting up to a year for their case to reach court. There was still an appeals procedure for convicted people but as the new system was fairer it was seldom used and also the criteria for getting an appeal heard was a lot more stringent, so only genuine cases got through to go to appeal, so no more time wasting and extortionate costs for cases which everybody knew right from the start wouldn`t succeed even under the old system. The Commander thanked the students for coming and said that he would probably see them all in the court the following day.

The next morning Peter drove everyone from the spaceport to the court building in their bus and waited for the proceedings to start. At ten in the morning the judge entered the court room flanked by the five person panel, three men and two women. Once they were seated the two accused were bought in by a pair of armed robo-guards and made to stand behind a low screen in front of the judge and panel. The case was introduced by a court clerk who then asked if the men were represented, to which another man rose from his eat and introduced himself to the judge and panel. He was the defence counsel and his testimony lasted less than ten minutes and he didn`t call any witness`s. The case was so clear cut that everybody knew both men would be convicted, and he had little to say other than asking the judge to be lenient with them as they were both fathers with young children. Next, The Commander rose and presented evidence for the prosecution and listed all the previous offences that the two were accused of. The defence counsel raised no objections and declined to cross examine the Commander, so Peter and Chris were not called to give evidence. After a brief summary the judge and panel retired to another room to consider the verdict. They were only away for about a quarter of an hour before they came back and re-took their seats.

The judge stood behind his desk and delivered guilty verdicts an all counts then proceeded to hand down the sentence`s. Both men were told that they would serve terms of twenty Earth years in Correctional Facility sixteen on the federation prison planet of Tagon. The sentence was given in Earth years as both the men came from there. Twenty Earth years was the equivalent of ninety on Tagon. Custodial sentences were always given in the time scale of the convicted person`s home planet. Once the judge had finished speaking the robo-guards led the two men away to the holding cells beneath the court room where they would stay until transport was arranged to take them to Tagon. This was usually provided by Tagon`s own fleet of saucers used exclusively for the purpose of transporting prisoners to the planet on conviction and away again when they were released. The verdict had been expected and a Tagon saucer was already out at the spaceport. The Commander came and said goodbye to Peter and all the others and wished them an enjoyable time for the remainder of their trip. Maggie asked the Commander if it would be possible for the students to visit Tagon to see what the federation prison planet was like. The Commander said he would enquire but personally thought that the answer would be no as the prison authorities didn`t encourage visits of any kind, including immediate family members. He said that most times when a person was sent there to serve their sentence, they didn`t normally have any visitors for the whole term of their stay there.

Later that evening, Peter received a video phone call from the Commander saying that as he suspected would be the case, the suggested trip for the students to Tagon had been declined. The students were disappointed but realised that there wasn’t much they could do to change the decision. They were preparing to leave the following morning for home as the scheduled tour was now completed.

The next morning once everybody had taken their seats, students included on the flight deck, and as Maureen and Fiona working together, were setting up the course for home, when Peter handed them a slip of paper with another unexpected destination written on it. Fiona looked at Peter with a question on her face and Peter simply nodded. Fiona nodded back and showed Maureen what was written on the paper. The girls then re-entered the course setting. Moments later the course setting and destination flashed up on the overhead panel which Chris had turned on. The students looked completely puzzled and Maggie voiced their collective thoughts.

“What`s going on Peter, we thought we were going home”?

“Just a small surprise, courtesy of the galactic police. It was decided last night that you all deserved a break from your studies. Chris came up with the idea and we got official clearance from Varianne early this morning, saying that they would pick up the bill. You now have an all-inclusive three-day stay on the federation resort planet of Centauri 3, all expenses paid by the police.”

There was stunned silence on the flight deck for a moment before the whole deck erupted in a wild cheer. “How on earth did you manage to wrangle that”? Maureen asked. “Chris and I both thought this lot could do with a short break, not to mention us of course, and have you seen the amount of study work they have all contributed to and accumulated? So, Chris spoke to our senior bosses on Varianne and here we are”. “Yes” Fiona replied, it`s almost enough to need a room on its own”.

The trip to Centuari 3 took twenty two hours and everybody was really looking forward to the promised three day break. They landed on the resort planet and the first thing Peter and the rest of the crew did was to remove their uniforms and slip into casual clothes. The planet, the third in the solar system of Alpha Centuari was the closet star system to Earth`s own solar system. The star was only visible from the southern hemisphere of Earth and the fact that it was relatively close to Earth made it a favourite for wealthy holiday makers. The planets main money earner was tourism and it had all sorts of activities to guarantee a good time was had by all who visited the place. There was the largest undercover shopping centre in the entire federation here, that had over twenty five thousand shops and covered twenty two square miles. Atom-X propelled buses ran a scheduled service to all parts of the shopping complex and were usually well patronised as it was a free service. There was parking for a quarter of a million private vehicles as well. All the walkways were moving with three different speed lanes similar to those now used extensively on Earth, just a lot larger. Within the complex were over a thousand restaurants, catering for all tastes from all corners of the federation. For the sports fans, practically every land based, water or airborne activity was catered for. There were numerous beaches and wide swathes of spectacular open countryside. Although the planet was only a six and a half hour flight from Earth it was expensive to travel there as the planet tried to preserve its exclusivity. None of the crew or the students would ever be able to normally afford to go there even on the wages that Peter and Chris received. Everyone was looking forward to the three day break and could hardly wait to disembark from the saucer.

Maureen, Fiona and the girls decided that the first thing they had to do was shop, so promptly headed off from the spaceport to the shopping complex. Peter`s parting words to Maureen were “Have you got your credit card”? “Yes, and yours”!

Peter and the rest of the males decided to try their hand at one of the many exciting water sports on offer and headed for the waterfront. Once there they decided on a fast boat trip to get their adrenaline flowing before trying anything else. There was a boat waiting to depart for an hour`s trip and they just managed to get the last remaining seats. The boat cast off and headed out into the wide bay. The young man started putting on the power immediately they left the jetty and the boat rapidly picked up speed. The board by the pier stated that the boat was one of the fastest in the federation capable of speeds in excess of 400 mph. On water that was quite a speed, (the old water speed record back on Earth stood at 317 mph, and that was in a specially constructed single seat race boat, not a large vessel like this carrying 200 passengers), and the boys couldn`t wait to see what it was like. Very soon the boat was clear of the bay and in open water where the driver applied full power. The bow lifted up at a 30˚ angle and the rapid acceleration forced all the passengers back in their seats. The passenger area was completely open and exposed and the speed took everybody`s breath away. The seats were low, only inches above the water so the speed seemed even greater than it actually was seeming to be in excess of 600mph, very scary until you got used to it). The driver put the boat through a series of tight turns making the boat keel over into the turn which practically put the passengers on that side on the surface of the water where they got soaked with spray. Everyone was having a great time when even more power was applied and the boat further increased speed. There was a small digital speedometer mounted where the passengers could see it and everyone watched closely as the dial rapidly approached the magic 400 miles an hour. This was reached and still the dial kept climbing before remaining steady at 420 mph. The passengers were able to see ahead of the boat, looking past the drivers shoulders and Chris drew Peter`s attention to a strange looking ramp that the boat was rapidly approaching. Before Peter could comment the boat reached the ramp, flew up it and took to the air, remaining airborne for about two hundred meters before hitting the water again with an enormous splash which soaked everybody. There were whoops and squeals of delight from the passengers. The ride was exhilarating to say the least and everyone on-board loved the experience. They got back to the jetty an hour later, soaking wet but happy. The student boys next decided to try parascending but Peter and Chris declined this having done it several times before. Chris asked Peter if they could go into the shopping complex without the girls so headed off there. Chris said he wanted to get something and didn`t want the girls there. Peter asked him what he was up to, but Chris just smiled and said he`d find out later.

That evening they all met up again at the saucer. The girls had booked two taxi`s back to the spaceport, one for them and one for all the bags they had between them. They were already back at the saucer along with the boy students when Peter and Chris arrived back. The girls had decided before Peter and Chris returned that after freshening up with a shower they would all go back to the shopping complex and try one of the restaurant`s for a slap-up meal. They had seen one that they particularly liked the look of, so Peter and Chris didn`t really have much say in the destination. So after showering and changing clothes, they all headed back to the complex. Peter managed to commandeer a small coach from the spaceport motor pool, complete with driver so they had no worries about transport which meant that everybody could drink if they wished. The coach dropped them practically outside the restaurant that the girls had selected with instructions to pick them up again a few hours later. Once the main course was eaten and cleared away there was a short pause while their sweets were being prepared, Chris stood up and asked for everybody`s attention. Once he had their attention, he turned to Fiona and dropping to one knee asked her to marry him. Fiona squealed with delight, said a definite yes, and then promptly told him to get up as he looked silly on one knee! Everyone congratulated them and Peter ordered several bottles of the restaurant`s best champagne which had been imported from Earth and cost an enormous $300 a bottle.