Stone and the Ravens (Guardian Stone Book 3)

by Don Koch

  Barana advised Destiny on how she could use the teleport method for her crew. While Destiny could not transport the numbers that a Station could, she still had a significant capability given the size of her crew. Destiny practiced this with volunteers from the crew and she could readily handle transports at a rate of 100 per second. This was a rate that would allow transfer of the entire crew in 20 seconds or extract persons at a considerable rate.

  Destiny advised Sass that she had a special delivery for him of materials requested from the special equipment inventory. She made arrangements with Barana to move it to a storage area in the military sector.

  Barana introduced Destiny to her sister Crystal on Malone and to her creator, Lorena. All in all, a very busy day for Destiny.

  On another note the Malone Supreme Court set a trial date for General Marson Fist to start on April 17. The General indicated that he will plead nolo contender but the court ordered an automatic plea of not guilty since they are trying on charges that call for the death penalty.

  # April 10 – C Day 589 #

  Almost all of the crew arrived early aboard the Destiny. All were conscientious about learning everything about their duty when aboard and the ships capabilities. Now that they were facing the reality of the ship, they were learning more about what the ship could do and how they would aid in its operation.

  June Carson arrived early and talked with Destiny and James Raven about the Rotans at Rotagilla. James offered the opinion that the Rotans were opportunists and stole their way to their current technology. He felt that the success they had in acquiring levels of stolen technology had impaired their social development. They were essentially stone-age barbarians with space travel. Not a healthy situation.

  “James, when do you think we should go to Rotagilla.”

  “I was hoping to go there tomorrow. The crew has been pretty diligent about using the simulators. I think they are ready for the real thing. This is a crew that has been working together for years and they are the best that Malone has produced. They will come together quickly.”

  “I think we will need to go down and look through whatever records we can access. Invisible mode on a T-Raptor team will do the trick.”

  “Meanwhile, I will see what kind of information I can drag out of their commander.”

  “That works.”

  "These folks seem to get a bit loose tongued when the question concerns something they want to brag about. Might be a good idea to have the recorders going during this visit."

  # April 11 – C Day 590 #

  Cruiser Destiny

  Everyone was on board and Destiny took the ship out cloaked. Twenty minutes later they were in orbit around Rotagilla. James Raven hailed the military commander on Rotagilla and same Commander Tangx he had defeated a month earlier responded to the hail. He was not happy to see James. “So finally you have returned human. I suppose it is to gloat at our situation.”

  “Not at all Commander Tangx, but we do have many questions. If you prefer, I can come down and visit in person.”

  “Why would we not kill you if you did?”

  “Commander Tangx, you can try but you would only hurt yourself. I will be there in 5 minutes.” James then brought his T-Raptor team together and explained what they wanted to do. Everyone was aware of his or her assignment. Barana had coached Destiny on her role in a T-Raptor scenario and she had practiced the previous day. “Ok is everyone ready for some fun. By the way, he will try to kill me during this visit.” They entered rapport and went to the commanders’ office.

  Tangx was startled. “I did not expect that you would arrive in this manner. How do you do this? What is it that you wish to say?”

  “You are just as charming as the last time we met. I will not be discussing how I travel. I have been reviewing the records prepared by the Malone fleet and I note that your mining activity in your system is almost nil. You have no present reliance on your space vessels in the system. You advance only through what you manage to take from others. That is no longer acceptable. You will be confined to this planet. All of the in-system ships you are using were built by the Linans on Alaok. How did you acquire those ships and the warships?”

  “The Alaok people are puny and weak. They came here to trade 20 years ago. We took their ship from them and forced them to take us to their world. They were easy to conquer. We then made them build ships for us. They are good builders and could build big ships almost as big as those on our home world, Gnuxet.”

  This statement startled James but he hid his surprise and said, “Go on please. Why and when did you leave Gnuxet.”

  “Fifty years ago, we were on an assignment to collect tribute from a planet called Gorth but our navigator made a mistake and brought us here instead. We had ten ships and thought we were landing on Gorth. We hit a storm on landing that disabled all of the ships and destroyed our communications devices. We were unable to contact Gnuxet.”

  “Well that accounts for the low apparent population. Even so you built up sizeable population rather quickly.”

  “I admit, that took us by surprise as well. It seems that one of the substances the Gorth like insects here created had a dramatic impact on our fertility. I suspect that it also reduced the intelligence of some. We do not really have the scientists and advanced thinkers we should have for a population this size. It is a puzzle. However it does not change the way we live and operate.”

  “That is to take whatever you want from those weaker than yourselves.”

  “That is correct. It is the way things should be.”

  “Where did you acquire the planet busters?”

  “We brought them with us from Gnuxet.”

  “So you take what you want and when you have what you want you destroy what is left.”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you come to attack Malone?”

  “The humans from Sitler said that you had a huge supply of materials that we need and we decided to take them.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that we might have been willing to trade for the goods you wanted?”

  “No, but it does not matter. We take what we want, we are not traders.”

  “Why do you tell me these things? They are not helpful to your cause.”

  “It humors me to answer your questions because you will not leave with the answers.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because my troops will prevent your departure.”

  “Really, do you think they can? You have a short memory. You forget how I arrived. You know nothing of my capabilities. You are making assumptions without sufficient information and it pleases ME, to let you make these mistakes.”

  At a signal from the Tangx, one of his troops pulled a firearm and fired it at James. Bullet after bullet fell to the floor and James just smiled and said to the amazed commander, “Is that the best you can do?”

  Again Tangx signaled and a trooper with a huge battle-axe swung it at James. As the axe made contact with James, it disintegrated. James then gestured and the trooper flew back against a wall and went through the wall landing in the next room. “Really commander, an antique axe, you can do no better than that?” The commander pulled open a desk drawer, withdrew an energy weapon and fired it at James. The energy beam hit James, flowed around him and destroyed a machine in back of him. James then gestured at the weapon and it slowly melted. “Do you have any more tricks to play Tangx?”

  “How can you do these things? What are you?”

  “Commander, do you recall when first we met, I gave you a warning. I told you that when a group threatens us we generally react strongly. You have no idea what we are capable of doing. I told you that you should not awaken the thing in us that triggers our capabilities. It appears to me that was a warning that was wasted on you. Too bad. You are about to find out what happens when we push back. Oh and by the way, the warships you tried to hide on your moon and on Rotagilla have all been disabled and their weapons destroyed.”

&nb
sp; “What are you going to do?”

  “I think that this time we will let that be a surprise.” The rest of the team had signaled that they had enough information so James ended the session and they returned to Destiny.

  June reacted first, “Wow, that was interesting. James you basically got all of the data I was after during your interview with that, that thing. That commander was like something out of a nightmare. I was surprised that he was so open with his answers until I realized he had no intention of letting you out of there alive.”

  Joe Carson commented, “James, that was exceptionally well handled. You reminded me of Hank and how he approaches difficult interview situations. I suspect that you are thinking this group should be returned to their home planet. At first I thought they had a much larger population. When you pulled out of him that they were from Gnuxet, I asked Destiny for a population count. They only have 90,000 Rotan individuals on the planet. That they would try to start an interplanetary war with such a small population is hard to believe. They have to be more than a little crazy.”

  June said, “Not exactly. A couple of things can be said from what we have seen. Their commander essentially said it all. They are takers and users, not builders. They are not particularly creative. They are more interested in acquisition by theft than they are by any combination of skill sets. It makes me wonder how they manage to survive. They have to service and maintain the things they steal. Since I do not believe that they have developed the skills to maintain what little technology they have, I would look for a hidden slave population. I would be very surprised if they do not have one.”

  James said, “Destiny, can you do a scan for life forms other than the Rotans, specifically, sentient life forms.”

 

  June continued, “James analysis is absolutely correct. The Rotans are not ready for space. They are totally self centered and seek only self gratification. They do not care what happens to others and feel nothing about destroying others. I was looking for any redeeming graces and did not see any. For all of that, they are pretty resourceful though some of that was luck. I was curious about the comment about the impact of the Gorth substance on their fertility. I suspect they may have been using RJX or something like it. If there is a planet full of this species at this stage of psychological development, we have a real problem. They are essentially barbarians that stole their way into space. I think that James and I are of the same opinion concerning the Rotans here. Deliver them back to Gnuxet and quarantine the planet.”

  James agreed, “That is my recommendation as well. I guess we see what Hank has to say.

  Chapter 33: Return Home

  Station 1 in orbit at Rotagilla –

  April 11 – C Day 590

  The Destiny was back on board Station One and the officers were having a debriefing with Hank and Sam. “James and June, for the short time you were here you sure pulled a lot of information out of them. I’m impressed.”

  “James did all the work, all I had to do was listen.”

  “Actually, the Commander Tangx wanted to tell me, even brag about what they were doing, fully expecting that I would not live to tell the tale. That in itself says a lot about them. These Rotans are dangerous to anyone they are near, they have no conscience and seem to be pleased by that fact. My recommendation is that they be returned to Gnuxet and quarantined until they are ready to associate with others. We need to monitor them and bar them from space. Frankly, I doubt that day will ever come, they are just too self centered.”

  “Does anyone have an argument for not doing this? Barana, Destiny, Fador? Seeing no objection, I happen to agree 200%, but I wanted to see if there was a rationalization for doing otherwise. Barana, how long to program sufficient units into the stasis ship along with sufficient supplies to assure they won’t starve after they get there?”

 

  “Ok, first things first, lets get those Linan on board and see what kind of care they need. I suspect they are all from Alaok but we need to confirm that. Then we need to help them over the trauma of their experience. James, would you like to do the honors with the commander. He is going home whether he likes it or not.”

  “That would be my distinct pleasure.”

  James gathered his T-Raptor team and explained what they were about. They then entered into rapport and projected back to the Commanders Tangx office unannounced.

  “Hello again Tangx. Are you ready to go home?”

  “What are you talking about.”

  “We are sending you back to Gnuxet. All of you.”

  “We do not want to go.”

  “You have no choice. You have the pleasure of being first to go. You have 30 minutes to collect personal effects and then you will be transported to a stasis cell for transfer home. Your personal effects may not include stolen goods or weapons. There will be no time for you to get anything else. This announcement is being made to all of your people. Everyone will be transported in 30 minutes whether they are ready or not. Ok Barana, start to transport them to stasis units in 30 minutes. If they are not ready, too bad. Goodbye Tangx.” James then went back to Station One and broke rapport. “Thank you Hank. That felt good.”

  “My pleasure James. Barana will move them into stasis at a rate of about 2,000 a minute. They will all be on board within the hour. All of the Linans are indeed from Alaok. I want to keep them in med machines for a few days to resolve any health issues they have from this experience. I have already alerted the officials on Alaok about what is going on here. We have explained to them that their nightmare is over. The Linans are fairly passive and June believes they will be ok. We will need some time to load on food supplies. We also need to decide what to do with all the junk they are leaving down there. For the most part they do not have a great deal of personal effects, so we are not talking about a huge amount of goods. I am inclined to package all the personal effects left over and dump it with the Rotans we are relocating on Gnuxet. We can let them sort it out once they are there.”

  “A good deal of the materials that remain really belongs to others. Some of that can be returned to appropriate parties. Others we will never know. None of the honey or RJX is to go with them. We need to clean the space junk here and return most of it to Alaok. All of the weapon systems will need to be destroyed or fully decommissioned. I will ask Station 177 to start cleaning up the space debris from their unpleasantness with Malone and deliver it to Alaok if they want it. After that they can start on the planet. Before they go near the fourth planet, we want to be sure that there is no residual dangerous radiation. Good job everybody.”

  # A little later #

  “Hello Queen Firs, I wanted to see what you thought of your new home and to see if you needed anything.”

  “Henry, this is an amazing place in which you live. Barana has given me a virtual tour of the Station and now I understand why my sister queens are so pleased. The ones you saved at Trag are particularly pleased because they did not expect to again awake. That so many sentient species live here in cooperation with each other is like a dream that has come to life. I and my other queens do not need anything that has not already been provided and we thank you for that. We found most interesting the things you do when in telepathic rapport. It occurs to us that this may be an area in which we might contribute. Barana has explained to us how your T-Raptor teams work and we wondered if this is something of which we are capable. Would you be comfortable with letting us try.”

  “That is an awesome idea. We
already know how the various species enhance our capabilities when in that mode and are even able to structure certain teams to achieve particular effects. I would welcome your participation and any of the Gorth that would like to give this a try. We can do this after I update you with the latest we have found out about your oppressors if you like.”

  “That would be good.”

  “Great, Barana, would you please see if my usual team is available, we would like to try this. Meanwhile, we have discovered some more things about the Rotans that you should know. We discovered today that the Rotans here at Rotagilla are originally from Gnuxet and were in fact tribute takers on their way to your planet 50 years ago. Due to navigational errors they ended up here. At that time, this planet was populated by the Gorth. The Rotans, thinking that they were on Gorth and seeing no tribute offering decimated the hives on this planet. They are not a very nice species. We are returning them to their planet of origin where we will quarantine them for the foreseeable future. These people should not be allowed to roam the galaxy as they wish. We have their entire population in stasis and will return them to Gnuxet.”

  “Ah that will be a good closure to that part of our past.”

  “My sense tells me that there is more to come related to these creatures. We may be heading in harms way, but I do not believe that they have the capability to do us harm. Nevertheless it is something we must do. Whatever we do, I would like it to be sufficiently overwhelming that they will pause before acting. That may be wishful thinking. I also believe that your work product has some peculiar affects on them and that might help explain why they are so keen to maintain a supply even though they do not hesitate to destroy it if they think their wishes are not being met. It does not make sense but that appears to be how they think. Well my T-Raptor team has arrived and we are ready to try this out if you are ready.”