by P F Walsh
Once they had control of a hijacked ship, the crew were injected with a med used to treat ‘Battle Shock’ now known on Earth as PTSD. This medication caused loss of memory. The captured crew was bunched up in an escape pod unconscious, released at the interception point, unable to activate the distress beacon until they regained consciousness. What the pirates did not know was that one crew they captured ran out of air before being rescued. Also unknown was lethal force had been authorized in their capture or destruction.
“Captain, I have a drone reporting contact, the ship is pushing hard and she’s big.” The commo crewman announced.
Thomak-Vel the representative from Mutus Colonium, came into the Speaker’s Office and stood before the Speaker, Sean, and Doris. He was frightened by the two black hooded specters he saw standing silently along the wall. Sean noticed that and said,
“Have no fear of them Thomak, they are the Sisters of Mak’am and they will verify that each of us speaks truth and with clean hands. No harm will come to you.”
The Speaker introduced Sean as the Senior Field Officer for Planet Earth now a member of the Council of Worlds but an effective mediator. And Doris his security officer.
“If there is anyone who can bring your case before the Council without prejudice, it would be Captain Flynn.” She said.
“Tell me your story again, please.“ Sean said.
Thomak-Vel retold his story and reiterated his basis for coming that it was on the principles of honor and their pursuit of some reconciliation with Hhearn.
“What kind of reconciliation are you trying to achieve here with the trade of this information? By your own admission, you have confiscated some old ships from the Council’s junk yard.” Asked Sean
“With regard to the old ships we ‘recovered,’ those all belonged to one of our honor breakers. He was forced to abandon them when his business failed and he was shunned from all of Hhearn and the member planets. So, they are ‘recovered’ not confiscated or stolen. They all are in need of some repair but still function if we don’t drive them too hard.” He answered.
“What we would like to achieve is to be able to trade and acquire medications and additional foodstuffs. We have quarried metals we can use to trade with. Ultimately, we would like to see the Council adopt a measure that limits our banishments on some scale related to our offenses. Some of our people are being punished for social errors. Lifetime of banishment for a social error strikes us as inhumane.” He said.
“Where is this all happening? Did you see an actual hijacking?” Sean asked
“I did not see it, one of our other ship crews watched the whole thing occur. We have modified our collision detectors to be ultra-sensitive and when we detect another ship in the area, we cut all power and drift silent to remain undetected. All our ships are now painted black, so we are very hard to see. While our ship was silently drifting, the freighter and the pirate ship drew up together, pirates boarded the freighter. Both were still drifting along in the direction of the freighter’s original route heading for a jump point, so they were soon out of sight and our ship left the area immediately.”
“Are you able to share with me the co-ordinates of the event?” Sean asked.
“No Sir, I was only given enough information to describe to you an event had occurred that was criminal. I do not know the location or descriptions. I was deliberately uninformed in the event we were taken into custody and submitted to truthmed. That is another reason why we came to Denknish.” Thomak explained as Sean nodded.
“I understand your concerns. How can I get to speak with the crew that observed the seizure?” He asked.
“You are welcome to come to our planet and speak to the crew but the coordinates of it must remain secure and not be shared with the Council. The crew also took a video of the seizure and the pirate ship.” He answered, increasing Sean’s interest.
“Very well, leave us now and I will talk this over with the Speaker and decide what to do. We should only be a few minutes.” Sean said.
Thomak-Vel left the room and Sean turned to Doris with a quizzical look on his face, looking for her impressions.
“Captain, he appears to be telling the truth but only investigation will reveal whether it is all the way he describes it. I suggest contacting Wally at our Embassy and ask him if there have been any reports of missing freighters, that at least should shed some confirmation on his claims.”
She said.
He then turned to the Sisters and silently asked,
“Does he speak true?”
The Sisters chimed,
“He speaks truly of what he has been told. His mind is full of suffering, images of despair, and of injustice. There is great need at his home.”
Sean nodded as he thought what the Sisters had told him. He repeated it for the Speaker and Doris.
“Let’s send the courier drone to Earth’s Embassy on Hhearn and ask Wally to check if there has been a missing freighter lately. That will add a lot of confirmation. It will take about five solars but it looks like he won’t mind getting some nutritious food for a few solars sent over to his ship. You agree Doreem?”
“Completely.” She said, “It is a Council matter for sure, but If what he tells is accurate, it could be a bargaining point for some relief for his people. We don’t have shunning here. I can now see how that can become extreme and be way more punitive than earned.” She said.
They called Thomak back in and told him plans were being made to accompany him back to Mutus Colonium. Sean wanted to meet with the crew that watched the event and see the video. If all of it is confirmed, he agreed to take their petition to Hhearn. They needed five solars or so to arrange it.
Sean, Doris, and the Sisters went back to the Discovery and Allister dispatched a diplomatic courier to Wally Henning on Hhearn. After they got that done, they called and invited the Speaker to dinner on the Discovery. She was very pleased to accept.
Five and one half solars later, the courier drone arrived back at Denknish and was recovered by Discovery. The message from Wally said there was not one, but three ships taken, and now another one is overdue and an active search was underway for the crew. This confirmed Thomak’s story.
Sean was back in the Speaker Nool’s office and she had just read the message Wally sent.
“You’re going, aren’t you?” She asked.
“Yes, I think it is the right thing to do, mostly to see if I can help these people loosen up the shackles they labor under, but it will also be good to get the video to share with the Council to identify the pirate ship if I can strike a deal. Maybe it will result in catching the pirates.” he said.
“Sean, the area you might be going in could be dangerous. We don’t know what kind of ship the pirates have that so easily stops a freighter. I’ll bring Lotma in to partner on this, and ask them to send one of their destroyers to go with you not only to protect you and Thomak’s ships, but maybe to apprehend the pirates who may decide to start seizing some of our ships if they are not stopped.” She said firmly. A quick call was made to the Chairman of the Presidium of Lotma.
He was pleased to take her call and she said,
“Mr. Chairman, I have Captain Flynn here and he is getting ready to make a trip into deep space hunting pirates that are seizing freighters. I wonder if you might have an idle destroyer that would like to make a trip with him?” She said.
“Pirates? Are you teasing me Doreem?” He asked.
“Not at all Helm, I’m serious, three freighters have been taken and a fourth is overdue. They are all Council freighters and I have received a diplomatic envoy from a small nearby colony we didn’t know about, that they have video evidence to share.” She said.
She could hear the Chairman cover his mouthpiece as he spoke to someone in his office. He came back on the comm,
“When are they leaving?” He asked.
“Tomorrow.” She said.
“I’ll have one waiting just outside your defense screen. Captain Flynn can
contact the ship directly and share where they are going. Pirates? Now that’s a change. You’re just full of surprises Doreem. When are you coming over for dinner?” He asked.
“How about next week?” She said.
“I’ll be waiting.” He said and rang off.
The Seeker arrived at Earth. Martin transmitted on 119.4 MHz, the Vienna Tower Frequency,
“Vienna Spaceport, starship Seeker 18 holding at angels 60 requesting approach and landing instructions, no taxi.”
“Starship Seeker hold, squawk mode 5... British Air 706 Heavy descend to 1200 feet, reduce speed, you are cleared for runway 34.”
“BA 706 Descending to 1200, reducing speed, cleared to land runway 34.” British Air acknowledged.
“Austrian 356 follow British Air heavy, maintain spacing, caution wake turbulence.”
“Austrian 356, following British Air runway 34.” The flight replied back.
“All other aircraft establish pattern orbiting at your present altitude and be advised starship descending vertical from angels 60.”
”Starship Seeker you will follow Austrian Air 356 on my call.”
“Starship Seeker 18 acknowledges, holding.”
The Starship landed at the location it landed before. The public address system in the airport announced,
“Interstellarer Raumschiff-Sucher 18 vom Planeten Hhearn erreicht jetzt das internationale Terminal, followed by in English,
“Interstellar Starship Seeker 18 from planet Hhearn now arriving at the International terminal.
The terminal crowd rushed to the windows to watch the Starship settle onto the concrete apron and lower its ramp. Millie was there to give Liesl a last hug and tell her she would see her soon. The first one down was Liesl Von Woldenburg who started waving excitedly at the terminal windows above. Some of the crowd were the Ballet academy students and they were screaming, as Liesl walked across the apron and the Ballet company started to come down the ramp. They were all greeted with exuberance. The Chancellor was there personally to welcome them back as was the Austrian media. The chancellor waved the usual customs grind, and all the passengers found family or friends there to immediately pump them for stories.
The chancellor took Liesl’s hand kissed it and said,
“You have been where no Austrian has gone, we are so proud of you, the broadcast was splendid. All of Austria is grateful.” She thanked the Chancellor and reached into her bag and handed him a Swarovski champagne flute that had been to Hhearn. It had been engraved with the Ball information in ‘Shrep’ the language of Hhearn. Then, Liesl turned to introduce the Chancellor to the other group leaders as the cameras flashed and the broadcast reporters tried to push in with their microphones.
It was a great day in Vienna. Last one off the ship was Millie who would catch a plane to Washington and begin to work the phones from the IRO Offices. After landing in Washington fatigued from all the travel, she stepped outside the baggage claim to clear her head in the fresh air.
“Right. Hopping from one planet to another certainly does spin one’s head. What’s next?” She asked herself. Refreshed by the cool breeze she
ran a list in her head.
“First, drag my things to a cab stand and get a lift to the apartment Maejel had lined up. Then, unpack and relax a bit, maybe call my friends and regale them with her new job experiences which were the talk of the London party scene. What the Hell time is it in London?” She thought. Nobody could top her tales now.
The former Lotma Corvette Noullk, now under the mutinous command of its former master chief followed along after the freighter as it turned and established a heading for B’eekan with a stop at their asteroid base Minos 138 to unload the cargo. Minos 138 was a mined-out asteroid that had deep mining tunnels, abandoned for more than fifty-five annuals after the mineral ore ran out. It was now packed with the cargo from the other hijacked freighters. Stored there for a few annuals, it could be leaked back onto the market bit by bit to produce more profits.
The former crew of the freighter had been ejected in an escape pod, all unconscious having been injected with a drug cocktail that induced memory loss and unconsciousness. The escape pod tumbled slowly not moving far off course as their freighter began to slip away into the darkness of space. Deakma Potl, mutiny Captain of the Corvette, leaned back in the captain’s chair and smiled as he thought,
“Another smooth heist, no one got hurt, no one got shot. The big guns of the Corvette scare them all. If we had done this with small weapons, someone would get stupid and challenge us. Bigger is better.”
The Discovery ship sat outside the now idle Denknish defense screen with the old ship from Mutus Colonium awaiting the Lotma destroyer they could see slowly coming in the distance. This was the first time a Lotma Destroyer could come this close to the screen without being fired upon. Now that the war had been mutually ended Denknish and Lotma space were in the process of unification as separate states but now known as the ‘twin worlds.’ to the Council of Worlds.
Thomak-Vel the representative from the colony was aboard the Discovery to make sure navigation through the asteroid field that surrounded the colony was done without any ship damage. All the tonnage of the thousands of asteroids that surrounded the colony in another time and place might have joined with the small planet to result in a bigger world. But, they did not, and still orbit the planet in a system with a hot star. With so many other choices, this small planet was not seen as habitable by surveyors. To those who sought respite and isolation, it was attractive despite its water and agricultural shortcomings.
The Lotma destroyer DS 567 named Domak arrived alongside the other two ships.
“Lotma Destroyer Domak reporting for duty, Captain Meeshlin-Hek in command.” The commo officer transmitted on open channel.
Allister answered,
“Copy that and welcome to the hunt.”
“Hunt? What are we hunting? We have no information other than to report to Captain Flynn on the Discovery for expeditionary duty.” The Domak commo officer asked. Allister replied,
“That is because this is mission is classified and is policing in nature. I am transmitting a crypto code to your AI. Please use this encryption on all communications going forward. Acknowledge when ready to encrypt, and receive encoded information.”
After several minutes the Domak answered back in encrypted transmission.
“This is a test message sent encrypted. How received?” Allister replied encrypted,
“Received as sent. Mission detail follows.”
“This mission is to hunt down pirates working in another sector. It is expected the pirates and their ship will be armed, they have hijacked three freighters and another one is overdue. No information on the size or category of the pirate ship is known yet. We will first stop at an unknown colony in a classified location. They have video of the pirate vessel. Be advised the Council of Worlds has issued permission for lethal force to be used if needed. Three innocent freighter crews have been set adrift in escape pods. One crew has died from lack of air. Weapons are ‘free’ for engagement with the pirate vessel if they do not surrender peacefully. Copy?”
The Domak answered immediately,
“Received and understood, weapons ‘free.’ Send coordinates for first destination, we will follow.” Aboard the Domak the Captain looked over the message with mixed emotions. While he was very glad the war was over, war was his professional specialty and his success record on combat was respectable. He was excited that his ship got picked for this mission.
“Pirates,” He thought, “Who would have expected that?” He mused and watched as his crew readied themselves for another flight into the unknown.
“Time to run some drills, we’ve been inactive for weeks now.” He thought as he called his Executive Officer (XO) aside to tell him what he wanted to drill on.
The three-ship convoy moved out into deeper space for transition to Mutus Colonium.
Allister began a review and systems status of
all weapons aboard the Discovery. Although not as powerful as the Seeker, they were formidable for Discovery’s size. Allister had been under attack just once before and had made note that being unprepared was an invitation to bad outcomes.
Sean was being non-committal about the whole thing preferring to wait for developments. There were too many variables in this mission, an unknown colony with unknown cultural and legal percepts, A colony that was clearly underfed, may be desperate, and armed pirates. Certainly armed. No one would give up a freighter without threat of grave harm. Allister had scanned Thomak when he came on board and he carried no detectable weapons, but he knew a small capsule of poison in the right place could incapacitate the crew. The Sisters said they perceived no malicious thoughts. Despite this, on a note of caution, Sean told him he was restricted to his cabin until the approach to B’eekan where his navigation help would be needed.
The small convoy came out of ‘no-space’ and slowly entered the Mutus Colonium solar system with both the Discovery and the Domak scanning everything within detection. The small planet was surrounded by thousands of asteroids and tumbling rock fuzzing up the scan returns.
“Captain,” The Commo Officer aboard the Domak said,” Sir, anything could be in there, it’s a swirling rock soup.” as he looked at his screens.
“I see that, bring the ship to alert status, collision, stand by weapons, warm up the combat systems, raise shields.” Barked the Captain.
The same calls were happening over on the Discovery.
“Time to get Thomak.” Sean said. Halkt-Bar spoke up,
“I’ll get him Sir.” And left the bridge. Sean noticed he had already armed himself and nodded at his preparedness. He soon returned with Thomak.
“Thomak what is the best approach here?”