CHAPTER 37

EDEN

NINETY-SIX HOURS AFTER RAPTOR TWO'S RETURN

          Tarifa sat in the main officer's lounge of EDEN with Endith. All of them had been in awe of what they had seen so far on the base, as none of them had ever expected to leave the millions of square miles of forests and mountains they called home. Tarifa immediately took a liking to Admiral Wallace. He was sincere, knowledgeable and he was honest. She took an immediate dislike to the man known as Senator Graham. She quickly learned he was a political animal, and the few hours she had spent with him and the Admiral around the table discussing what the situation on earth was, she began to not trust the man. His son Kevin was almost as bad, openly leering at her and making disgusting gestures. She had hardly noticed him while they were on the surface, but now it appeared he felt more secure and could do as he wished because of his father.

          Tarifa and her elves were given free reign within reason in this section of EDEN, but most had chosen to remain in the quarters provided to them. Tarifa had no doubts as to why either. Even as she and Endith sat her in the lounge, the looks of lust and desire filled the eyes of every man in the room.

          The item that bothered her the most was the fact that she had not seen Martin since they had arrived four days ago. Their departure from EDEN Ground Control had been orderly and quick. He had not spoken to her since their encounter, or during the fourteen hour flight to reach EDEN. Upon arrival, he explained the procedures for decontamination in a very businesslike voice, and while he and the others of his team went through the decon process together, Tarifa and the elves were allowed to go through one at a time to avoid embarrassment of any kind. Upon learning of the decontamination procedure, Tarifa was aghast to find she wanted to go through with Martin and his team. She wanted to see him naked in all his glory. She had dreamed of him the night before in her quarters, seeing herself screaming out her desire in his arms. Tarifa knew that part of the explanation for how she was reacting was because of what the Holy One had done, making certain elves drawn to these Genomes as he called them, but there was something else entirely.

          Tarifa had acted arrogantly after seeing the message the Holy One had left for him. She had reacted in the way she would toward any human male who showed an interest in her. Yet Martin was very different. He could have taken her in the hanger bay that night. In her state she would have willingly submitted to him, as aroused as she had been, and done anything he asked. He had stopped his actions before his own animal instincts could take over. That is what endeared him to her more than anything did. That and the fact he treated her as an equal, unlike the Senator and the others she had encountered and even more so than her own Council of Elders.

          "What are you thinking Tarifa?" Endith asked quietly.

          Tarifa looked at her. "I'm thinking that this Senator Graham would like nothing better than to align with the Alliance. He is an evil man Endith, and I do not trust him."

          "But Admiral Wallace controls this base." Endith spoke.

          "But for how long?" Tarifa said. "You have seen the way we are looked at by many of the humans here. It is no different then back on earth. We are seen as playthings. Freaks to be used however they wish. I'm beginning to think coming here was a very bad idea."

          "Then what do we do?" Endith asked.

          "We must…"Tarifa stopped when she saw the two armed humans come into the lounge and head directly for their table.

          The two men stopped and looked down at her. "Miss we have orders to escort you to the Command Briefing room."

          "What? Why?" Tarifa asked. "I was under the impression that I would speak with the Admiral again tomorrow."

          "Senator Graham is ordering this miss, not the Admiral. Please come with me." The man motioned to the door, and his voice made it clear he would brook no opposition. Tarifa and Endith got to their feet. "Your aide is to be escorted back to her quarters."

          "She is my aide." Tarifa said. "As Queen she is entitled to go where I go."

          "You are not Queen here miss, and we have different ways of doing things." The guard responded, taking her arm in his hand. "Please come with me now."

          Tarifa resisted the urge to send the man flying across the room and she gave an almost imperceptible nod to Endith before the guard led her out of the lounge.

ADMRIAL WALLACE'S PERSONAL QUARTERS

          "What's going on Admiral?" Martin asked as he settled into the chair.

          Wallace followed him into the room and poured himself a drink at the small wet bar. He turned back to Martin and moved to the couch, sitting on the arm of it. "We have a problem Marty." He said.

          Martin leaned forward in his chair. "I'm listening sir."

          "Senator Graham has been very busy in the two weeks since we discovered our situation Marty." William spoke. "While you were gone it appears he was able to go behind my back somehow and gain access to a secure communications array which he then used to contact this Alliance Dictatorship."

          Martin's eyes went wide and he came to his feet when Wallace told him this. "Admiral, I mean no disrespect, but why didn't you tell me this when we first got back?"

          "I wasn't absolutely sure until this morning Marty." He answered. "Frank found out through his contact in the civilian research labs. That was the array Graham used. It was confirmed this morning when we got a transmission from a Minister Deval representing this Alliance government."

          "They contacted us?" Martin asked stunned.

          Wallace nodded. "They insisted on speaking with Graham, and are implicit in their statement that this Tarifa and everyone with her are war criminals. They are demanding we return them to their custody."

          "Admiral you can't seriously be considering this." Martin said. "Can you?"

          "It gets worst." Wallace told him. "Apparently, Graham has spent the better part of the last six days politicking the entire base, and informing them of what has happened. He is also stating that this Alliance dictatorship is the legitimate government of the United States and that I am refusing to communicate with them."

          "EDEN is a military facility sir, why should what he says matter?" Martin asked.

          "The day before you returned I had to have security break up a demonstration on the main promenade that was demanding we open communications with this Alliance government." Wallace answered. "Graham organized the demonstration, and he was also clever enough to tell those involved that I would order security forces in to break it up."

          "He's turning the civilian crew to his side." Martin spoke softly.

          Wallace nodded. "He sure is. And quite effectively I might add." William sipped his drink. "I also discovered that the Sweeper Team he brought aboard has gone underground. We don't know where they are, or what they are doing. Somehow they've managed to disable the tracking devices we put on them, and their quarters have not been used in several days."

          "Then you can bet they are mixed in with the civilian crew and doing whatever Graham tells them to do." Martin said.

          "No bet here." Wallace replied. "I've ordered extra security on all sensitive locations, but since half our security force is civilian, I don't know who we can trust."

          Martin looked at him. "Tarifa and the elves will be in danger Admiral?"

          "They've been locked down in their Quarters and told to keep a very low profile." Wallace answered. "I have Marines outside their quarters."

          "Admiral… he's going to make a play for control of the base." Martin told him.

          Wallace nodded. "That's what it's looking like."

          "Admiral… you've seen my report." Martin spoke. "This Alliance government makes Hitler's regime look like girl scouts in comparison. Slavery, Genetic experimentation, do we want to be associated with that?"

          "Apparently Graham does Marty." Wallace said. "He's power hungry. He's been that way all of his life. He figures if he can hand EDEN over to these people he'll get a whole lot in return." Wallace held out the data pad. "You better read this." He waited until Martin took the pad before continuing. "He's planning on bringing you up on charges of kidnapping and assault in regards to his son. He's also planning on having Danny and Julie arrested for imprisonment and rape."

          Martin looked at him, "Rape?" He gasped. "You must be joking, the rape of whom?" His eyes grew larger, "Anja?"

          Wallace nodded. "Yes, according to the eyewitness account of his son."

          "Admiral, whatever happened between the three of them was not rape. I talked to Anja on the surface sir. She was a very willing participant in whatever took place, of that I can guarantee you." Martin said.

          "Are you sure Marty?" Wallace asked. "She came to EDEN with a completely different agenda. How can you be sure she has done this complete turn around? You'd better find out, and do so quickly. The arrest warrants will be issued this afternoon, and I have to act on them due to the seriousness of the charges."

          Martin came to his feet. "I'll find out Admiral. Trust me."