Free OMEGA Guardian by Stephen Arseneault

not have the manpower to take control of the station, and I was in no way working directly for Harden Salton. With luck, we would have the Governor on a ship heading for Effica before he had a chance to think it all through. If we could get him off the station and out to Effica, he would be under our complete control.

Chapter 6

    The Governor, his stolen items, and his cronies were moved out to Effica without incident. All comm channels on the planet had been scrambled, with only a single channel coming out to our team left available. Four ships were enlisted to patrol the space around Effica in an attempt to limit the former Governor’s contact with others that he might enlist to work against us.
    The surprise elections on SS241 had taken place, and as planned, Cal Hoog was the new Governor. Within days, the security services, the judgeships, and all administrative positions that were purely political in nature were scrubbed of any support for the former Governor. The huge budget that had been diverted for Marcos’s private use for years was restored. The elevators going down to level 99 were made a priority project. Life on SS241 was changing for the better.
    I walked into Bay-68 after a good night’s sleep in my quarters on level 99. Malcom sat in his chair, facing Gerald, who was fast asleep in his.
    The Captain made a rare appearance as he walked over to Malcom and Gerald. "Mr. Beutcher, come over here. I have some news for the lot of you."
    The Captain continued, "As you all know, we have a new Governor. From that, we also have a new Chief of Security. And from that, we have had a modest budget restored. I now have on order arm pads and desk systems for each of you to make use of. We will be installing the standard software package used on all the security stations in the alliance. We are finally being brought into the modern age!"
    Malcom scowled and Gerald rolled his eyes as the Captain grinned.
    The Captain spoke as he waved all four arms. "Mr. Beutcher here has extensive knowledge of the new software package. I will be tasking him with your training. And if the two of you have any ideas about being difficult with your adoption of the new programs, you had better start looking for a new job now. This stuff isn’t portal science. All you have to do is follow a few simple steps to initiate and enter a report. And by the way, we will be getting a scheduler to assign inspections, so expect the pace of work to pick up."
    The Captain turned to leave and then stopped. "Oh, and by the way, we will be having three new inspection detectives starting in the next few weeks. If any of you know good maintainers, we are going to need them. In the meantime, you will all have to share."
    When the Captain had finished his speech, he headed back for his office. He had mounds of paperwork to complete before the new systems would come online.
    Malcom turned towards me with an angry look. "You did this, Beutcher."
    I laughed. "Maybe it’s time you started earning that salary, Mr. Barber. Maybe it’s time we all did. I am certain we will be assigned the occasional slaver transport; perhaps we should try to work out a plan of how to deal with them without causing a confrontation."
    Malcom raised his arms. "And just how would we do that? They kill or enslave anyone who gets in their way! They get worked up over the slightest interference."
    I replied, "They are businesspeople, Mr. Barber. We negotiate with terms that they find acceptable."
    Malcom shook his head. "Terms they find acceptable? I can tell you what those terms will be. They will be that we accept whatever it is they want us to do. I don’t think you have an understanding of just how powerful these people are. We have a handful of security ships here to deal with what are probably a hundred armed ships.
    "They have armor and they have weapons. Meanwhile, we are flying around in these ancient personal taxis they call security ships. You can’t negotiate with savages when