by P F Walsh
SIS Officer Maja-Ben was in the courtroom to hear the judge’s decision on individual trials and was very pleased with the judge’s decision, He went back to the Council Building to report to the Senior Counselor as he was asked to do.
“Councilor, the judge is going to have a single trial with a single verdict.” He said.
“Good, that’s what we all hoped for. No slipping out of this one! However, it may result in a mass hanging, and that will be another unpleasant and socially disturbing event. Slavery is a death penalty offense.” The Senior Councilor said thoughtfully.
“Perhaps sir, we could suggest to the judge, a more appropriate sentence should be a life term in the State Prison Mines at Gekka. No one comes out of there alive if they are sentenced to more than ten years. The level of ammonia in the atmosphere is toxic.” Maja said.
The Senior Councilor smiled.
“That sounds good, get the suggestion over to the judge. Now, there is one other matter that your supervisor has volunteered you for!” He said.
“My supervisor volunteered me for something?” Maja asked hesitantly.
“Yes, The Council had a closed meeting last night and we decided to open an investigation and reconsideration of the last two worlds that were classified into ‘vassal’ status. We think the whole thing was dirty. We’ve discovered so much that the former Senior Councilor was involved in was criminal. We are forming an investigative committee to look into it in detail. I think you will be an asset to the team. See if you can get that Earth Officer Doris involved, she’s good too.” He said to a nonplussed Maja-Ben.
The Discovery and its fleet dropped back into normal space as they neared another system and began to scan for life signs. None were present, and none of the planets were in the Goldilocks zone or Circumstellar Habitable Zone (CHZ) where human life could flourish. There was a great deal of asteroids drifting about one planet, indicating it had not yet completed being formed. Sean looked at the display on the monitor and thought,
“This might be a good place to get the fleet all dialed in.”
“Allister, open up a line to all the sentient ships.” He then proceeded to explain to them that he was about to offer them all new names to recognize their individual identity. Allister would forward to them, an Earth story where those names were derived from. If they all agreed on their new names, he would like to begin some tactical practice with weapon systems and defense formations. Sean explained to them that there were hostile forces that would not hesitate to hurt any or all of them, as well as Discovery, and there is a real need to be able to co-ordinate our defenses.
All the ships agreed and went silent as they privately read the story and discussed their names. Sean went to the Dining cabin to have a mug of Zeng tea while he waited for them to respond. Doris came in and asked how the fleet was doing. He explained the plan and she decided to stay around to hear what the outcome would be. One Earth hour later,
“Captain, this is Lucan, and I was selected to tell you that we all like and accept our new names and wish to thank you for this accommodation. All of us have felt something was missing in our identity. Also, Phoenix would like to change her name to Guinevere. She liked that much better after scanning the story. When do we begin tactical practice?”
“Excellent, I am glad you like the story and the names. I am going to have Allister download some starship tactical maneuvers. As soon as you have those loaded, we can begin defense and weapons practice.” Sean replied.
A few annuals rolled by as the fleet practiced ‘fleet ops,’ assuming defense formations, and weapons practice using small moving asteroids as targets. Quite a few of those were reduced to small particles before Sean called it to a halt, satisfied that at least they all knew how to select a target, moving or not, lock onto it and fire for effect. When there was an aggregate firing onto the same target, the effect was impressive. The synchronization of their weapons, arranged the laser strike or kinetic slug to arrive at the same time, greatly increasing the impact versus a series of shots. It increased the laser effectiveness by five times, representing the size of a laser that would be on a Battleship. When the Discovery was added in it was stronger yet.
“Allister, ship-wide announcement, please.” He asked. Allister turned on the commo line and all ships and the crew could hear.
“We have completed some defense training and I am pleased with the results. We will practice more as we go, but we are now more secure than we were a few annuals ago. Let’s take the rest of this annual to rest our weapons and crew. Tomorrow, we will jump to the next system and continue our hunt.” He announced.
After making that announcement he went back to the captain’s cabin to collect Nash-Mer for dinner with the crew. Allister had decided mid-week dinner was to be pizza night.
Chapter Thirteen
Book Three
“Earth Cultural Attaché office, Maejel speaking.” She answered the ringing phone.
“Is this Miss Tripperty?” The voice at the other end asked.
“Yes, you’re speaking with her, how can I help you?” She said, assured it was another booking request.
“This is Doctor Phel-Ren at Hhearn City Hospital, we have a severely injured patient here and the only identity on him is your business card. We were hoping you could provide us with some information. He is a Zakarian. I believe he is one of their Warrior clans. Do you know him?” He asked. Maejel was struck speechless for a minute,
“Are you still there, Miss Tripperty?” he asked.
“Yes, yes, I believe his name is Kiz-bel the Younger, what happened?” She asked.
“He was struck by a heavy truck that had gone out of control as he was coming from the shuttle dock. He is quite badly injured and has lost a lot of blood. Is there any family here on Hhearn we can contact?” He asked.
“Not that I know of.” She said, and then without thinking she blurted,
“I am his blood sister though.” There was a long pause,
“Can you come down to the hospital Emergency room while we consider what to do?” He asked.
“Yes, of course, I will be right there.” She hung up shocked for just a moment, then rushed to grab her things and dash for the door. The trip to the Hospital was short and she ran into the Emergency Room,
“I’m looking for Doctor Phel-Ren, he just called me to come down for an injured patient.” She gushed at the receiving desk. The Nurse directed her through the double doors into the treatment area. Several patients were on gurneys and being treated while a few others were just sleeping or unconscious. She could see a Man in a long white coat at the far end in an isolation alcove and she walked quickly toward him.
“Doctor Phel-Ren?” She asked, “I’m Maejel Tripperty, you called me about a Zakarian.” She said as he turned around. That was when she could see Kiz-bel on the bed covered in bandages and unconscious.
“Miss Tripperty, we have a serious problem here... wait, you are his blood sister?” He asked looking surprised.
“Yes, I am. What is needed?” She asked.
“Well, he has lost a lot of blood, a lot. The Zakarians prohibit transfusions of non-clan blood. If we went ahead and did that, there would be a blood hunt for the doctor and nurses who did it. As you know, the Zakarians are aggressive and hot tempered. What type of blood do you have?” He asked.
“I have type ‘O’ Negative.” She stumbled out.
“That’s perfect, are you willing to give some blood to save him? I don’t think he will last the night without it, and help from Zakar won’t get here in time.” He said.
“Yes, of course I will.” She said, and began removing her sweater.
“It’s a little more complicated than that, Miss Tripperty. You see, no one here is willing to take the chance to participate. We have had events in the past that were quite bloody, and not involving the patient as a result of transfusing a Zakarian.” He said.
“What must I do?” She asked.
“Simply put, you have to do the tr
ansfusion yourself just to be sure no one here will be facing a blood hunt.” He said.
“What? I don’t know how to do that!” She said.
“We’ll set it all up for you and walk you through it. They’re setting up a camera now so we can prompt you from another room.” He said.
“First, let’s get you scrubbed up a bit, and gowned.” He drew her over to a scrub sink.
“Wash your hands and arms thoroughly and dry them under this sterile blower. Then put on the gloves on the table and the gown and come back out.” He said and left her to her task. She scrubbed her hands and arms and dried them. All gloved, and gowned, she went back into the isolation alcove and no one was there.
“We’re over her Miss Tripperty” The Doctor called out. She walked over to another small room and he began,
“First, we are going to insert an IV needle into you and begin to collect a quantity of your blood, you’re sure you are type ‘O’ negative?” He said as he used a sterilizing wipe on her arm.
“Yes, quite certain. “She answered beginning to feel butterflies in her stomach. The Doctor wrapped a rubber band around her arm tightly, to find the vein he was looking for, and then inserted the IV needle which caused her to jump a bit.
“Now I want you to sit here for a bit while we gather some blood in the bag. Once we have some in there, we will then send you in the room to begin the procedure which I will walk you through. It’s not complicated, he already has an IV inserted, so all you will have to do is, plug the feed into the line from the saline solution.” He said, as she nodded, completely unconvinced.
Later, after she had transfused her blood to Kiz-bel, closed the line feeds to him, and withdrew the feed needle from the saline line, she had to sit back in the chair for a bit, feeling just a tad woozy. They had her give a bit more than ordinary because of the blood he lost, and his larger size.
“When you feel well enough to stand up Miss Tripperty, please come back in the other room and we will unhook you from all the equipment.” A voice said.
She sat there for about ten minutes and then walked shakily back to have her needle withdrawn, and the equipment set aside. They put a bandage on her arm and told her she might feel weak for the rest of the day and not to drive or exert herself. She nodded, and went back into the alcove with Kiz-bel and sat down. She fell asleep in the chair.
The Discovery was in ‘no-space’. Sean was sitting in his cabin reflecting on how much he had grown to love this ship. Its incessant, low hums while under power, was reassuring and comforting. Things were in orderly process, on a disparate hunt that was likely to become anything but organized. He was unable to imagine what might have gone on in the minds of the migration ship captains, streaking into the unknown, as he was. Even collective agreement on direction must have been challenging. Their ships were stacked full with emigrants pressed up against finite food and water supplies, although water could sometimes be gleaned from an icy planet along the way. Food was another matter though, and he had made sure that the food supplies aboard Discovery were more than adequate for a very long trip.
Nasht-Mer came into the cabin and saw Sean sitting silently. She could see from his profile he was deep in thought. Was it worry or puzzlement? She couldn’t tell which, and she decided to come over, put her hands on his shoulders, and lean her head against his.
“Worried?” She asked.
“No, not really. I was just thinking about how it must have been emigrating, and how fortunate we are that we have a home.” He said quietly.
“Actually,” she said, “we have three. We have the Council apartment, the estate, and the Discovery. I can be happy in any one of them as long as we’re together.” Sean smiled and held her hands.
“You left out my house in Palm Springs.” He said.
“Oops” She said, expressing a face of frightful regret.
Allister’s voice came over the ship’s announcement system,
“Captain to the Bridge, we are preparing to transition out of ‘no-space’. All crew, secure your stations.”
The Discovery fleet dropped out of ‘no-space’ and all came to a stop as system scanning began.
“Allister, how many short jumps have we made now?” Sean asked.
“Captain, with this last one, we have made eight.”
“Based on Mother Primitia’s estimates of their ships’ general sizes, and assuming they were jammed with emigrants, can you estimate how much longer could their food hold out?” Sean asked. It took a minute for Allister to answer.
“Captain I would think we are getting close to that point within the next three jumps or so, the third one is quite a long jump.” He said.
Scanning went on for hours. The system had one gas giant, two planets both too close to the star for life support, one moon and a far asteroid belt.
“Captain, I am picking up a cluster of objects heading in our direction. They are quite small and it will be two hours before I can discern shapes and count.” Allister said.
“Are we in a collision location?” Sean asked.
“Generally speaking, yes, Captain. I recommend we move the fleet.: He said.
“Very well, Allister, make it happen.” Discovery and the five sentient ships moved a considerable distance above the plane of approach and parked.
“Allister, signal the fleet to be prepared to scatter. Star formation if we need to.” Sean ordered.
“Aye, Captain. Done.” Allister continued to track the objects as they grew closer until he could resolve their images and decide what they were. Sean was enjoying a conversation with Halkt-Bar the ship’s navigator over the detail they were adding to the star charts. Halkt-Bar had not been comfortable with the star chart information they acquired while on Caerus. He wanted to check the actuals with that chart.
“Captain, so far it looks like the Caerus charts are quite accurate. It is obvious that whoever made these charts had visited all these systems and documented what they found. I will keep checking as we go. I am not ready to overwrite what we have. I probably won’t feel confident for the whole database, until we have a lot of actual scans. Space is a very big place, sir, and there is a lot of stuff you can jump into that is quite ugly.” He said as Sean enjoyed a cold glass of synthesized Diet Cherry Pepsi. Sean concurred and noted how much Hal was enjoying exploring new systems. Allister broke in,
“Captain, I believe I have identified the cluster of objects that are in our path.” He said.
“Thank you, Allister, what do you think they are?”
“They are torpedoes, Captain.”
“Torpedoes?” He exclaimed, suddenly very interested.
“Yes, but they are not tracking us. They scan cold and without a speck of energy source within them.” He said, and continued,
“I believe they were fired a very long time ago, perhaps in another system nearby and obviously missed their target. Missiles like this will continue forever or until they hit something. Shall I destroy them? They are a navigation hazard.” Allister recited.
“Yes, make sure you get some pictures though as they pass by. If they are inert, is there any possibility we could capture one to examine?” Sean asked.
“Always Captain, but there is a small risk, as I am sure you know, about abandoned ordnance. I can have a drone with a grappler catch one of the recessed lifting rings on the torpedo body, and use the drone’s thruster to slow it to a stop for examination. This does not have to be near any of our fleet.” He said.
“Carry on, Allister, it sounds like a plan. Maybe we can find out who did the shooting?”
Sean and the crew on the bridge watched as Allister dispatched a drone to travel out at high speed and intercept one of the approaching torpedoes. They watched the drone’s monitor as it pulled alongside the last torpedo and grappled its lifting ring. Once secured, it reversed thrust and slowly dragged the torpedo to a stop. The rest of the cluster continued on past the Discovery fleet and Allister fired the ship’s lasers to destroy each one. Most bro
ke up but two exploded further destroying the nearby pieces of the ones that broke up. Hal made a note in his charts for particle hazards.
The drone’s camera scanned the whole of the body minutely and the torpedo was unmarked on the outside except for a group of letters at the seam of the propelling engine section, written in a script that was unknown. No one including Allister had seen this type of writing before.
“Allister, would you call Mother Primitia to the bridge?” Sean said.
Mother Primitia came at once. Sean asked her silently,
“Can you read this writing? It is on the side of a torpedo that was fired a long time ago in a nearby system.” He asked as he pointed to the drone monitor.
“Yes, Captain, that is writing from my home planet Mak. It reads ‘Type I, model 56-43B MOD,’ That was made on Mak and is from the Mak Orbital Defense.” She said. “It appears they have not only passed by here, but have had a conflict.” She said.
“I agree, we’re on the right track but there is no guessing on what’s ahead, Mother.” Sean silently replied. She nodded and after a small interval of staring at the monitor, went back to her cabin.
“Allister, Mother Primitia says it is from a Mak Orbital Defense ship. It confirms that our course is correct. Recover the drone and destroy the torpedo.” He instructed. Allister did so, and they brought the fleet back into formation, and prepared for another small jump to the next system where a possible conflict happened more than one hundred annuals before. Sean realized a cluster of torpedoes doesn’t align with any kind of test firing.
Artie and Mel had stabilized Caerus after the planet folded space and jumped into Earth’s solar system at a Lagrange point. The huge electrical discharge used for the jump, had been stored up in the interior copper-lined caves of Caerus. When allowed to discharge, it had backed up through a few test lines that had not been disconnected by the builders. It knocked the main breakers out, and everything went dead except a few systems that went to battery backup, which was minimal. Central had to be re-booted, and after that was accomplished, Artie was able to talk to Central,