by Don Koch
Trials of others involved followed and had a similar result. Over a three-week period all of the trials were conducted and all were found guilty. All of the off-world defendants received the death penalty as did the publish-ing executive. Almost all of the remaining defendants not involved in the killings that had occurred received a life sentence.
As soon as Hank heard the admission, he went mind-to-mind with his T-Raptor team and explained what had happened. "Our job is to find everyone of those symbiotes and their delivery mechanisms and to destroy them. The vids of the trial are on a one-hour delay for public viewing so we have a limited window to pull the plug on this. I want a squadron of warships there right away to assure that nothing gets past us. We are going in to make sure that there are no other surprises and to wreck the place. We will get started but Station One will follow. Barana, I want a read on a sample of those symbiotes. Are the destruct codes the same? I want to know about those things. What are they structured to do? I want to also be sure that there are not more of these sleepers out there so I want all ships running scans on uninhabited planets within her former reach. I would not put it past her to have a backup plan for more of these things." The team entered rapport and went to the coordinates provided by General Fist in the invisible mode. The compound was well disguised but they found it easily enough. There were about 40 workers there. The first thing done was to fry every circuit they could find on all of the manufacturing equipment and delivery missiles. Apparently Fist had some redeeming graces but not many. The only reason he revealed this plan was because he felt betrayed by Rema Brondin.
Additional teams arrived to blanket the area. All of the workers were sent to stasis in the core of Station One and would be returned to their home planet for trial, which in this case was Sitler. Barana isolated one of the symbiote packages and noted that the thing was designed to produce mindless slaves and it still had a destruct code but it was different. Barana was able to determine what the new code was and sent the destruct signal. She also sent the codes to all Stations and asked that they broadcast the new code as well as the old. They also identified all of the targeted systems and there were no surprises there. They did not include Pared, so apparently Rema did not know of their presence.
A half hour later a message came in from Station 146, Praxix that had been on Standby at Alaok. They had located a similar facility at Corc and given it the same treatment as the plant at Bear. A third and final plant was found in the Oort cloud at Phang on a planetoid about half the size of Earths moon. The plants in the Corc System and the Phang System were totally fried after capturing the entire contingent at both locations. Testing of the contents of the plants indicated the same targets with the same intended result.
Hank wanted to see the reaction from Rema Brondin when she heard this news. He pulled his team together to visit her in her cell when not at the trial. He and Queen Firs appeared in her cell and said "Rema, do you have any more symbiote manufacturing site on Malone other than the one we found in your records."
"Yes."
He knew this was a lie but said, "Where."
"I am not going to tell you." Queen Firs started to increase her size, she was now about a foot long and clearly agitated."
Rema looked a bit alarmed and said, "What is that thing?'
"This is Queen Firs of the Gorth. Do you have any additional symbiote manufacturing plants on Sitler than the two we found on Sitler?"
"No." This was truth.
"Do you have any on that moon base of yours."
"No." This was a lie.
He then went down the list of systems and received "No" responses for all the rest. Her responses for Corc, Bear and Phang were all lies.
"Well ok Rema, lets recap. We have destroyed the two sites you had on Sitler, the two on Malone, the site below your base on the Sitler moon, The one in the Oort cloud at Phang, the one at Bear and the one at Corc. You have been very naughty. Oh yes, the little lab you had on your yacht. Do you have any more?"
In a much smaller voice she responded, "No." and this was the truth.
"I suppose you realize that there is nothing to save you now?"
# Division 10 and 17 –
April 20 – C Day 599 #
Divisions 10 and 17 received another 299 cruisers bringing their total to 400. This meant that each station in those Divisions had 40 of the new cruisers.
# Station 161 at Gnuxet –
April 22 – C Day 601 #
The nine remaining ships that Hank had encountered at Gorth finally came limping into port at Gnuxet. Sean was part of a T-Raptor team observing their reception. The Commander of the ten ships reported to Kangx about the encounter and then about the removal of their cargo a short time later. He provided vids of the destruction of the tenth ship. Kangx questioned the Commander at length. When he was finished, he pulled an energy weapon from his belt and shot the Commander dead on the spot in front of the combined crews. “That is the reward for failure. Who is the second in command?” The second in command stepped forward. Kangx said, “You are now in command of this nine ship unit. See to the repair of these vessels. When they are done, you are to return to Gorth and take what you were sent for, then destroy the planet. Do you understand these orders?”
“Yes, I do.”
"It is time to teach these intruders a thing or two about what we will tolerate."
What Kangx did not know was that the entire episode had been observed and recorded.
# April 28 – C Day 605 #
Divisions 10 and 17 received 66 Battleships on April 24 and another 14 on April 27. The ships assigned to exploration Divisions now had half of their battleship allotment. At the same time, Division 1 received its entire allotment of battleships and its entire allotment of cruisers. Since this Division was typically roving to where ever they were needed, generally where there was a hotspot, it made sense that they should be the first with this equipment. Training on the new equipment was prompt and it did not take long for the new equipment to become fully functional.
# May 1 – C Day 610 #
With the number of Stations in orbit at Malone, the transfer of the military was well ahead of schedule and Malone was adjusting readily to the changes. A sufficient number of experienced spacemen and women were available to provide a solid merchant marine. They would be operating the converted warships and negotiations for the routes and items where trade was underway. The same proved to be true for other systems in the region. Contact with the Sol based Space, Inc. had been made and that effort was also progressing positively. Research within Space, Inc. produced a new drive that was capable of speeds up to 150,000xSL. The conversion yards at Tau Ceti had tested the new drives, noted and corrected a few flaws and agreed to install the drives on new conversions where desired. The new drive made the long trips in interstellar space more practicable.
Sitler had made peace offerings with its neighbors and that had been accepted. Relationships in the region were clearly improved. Cultural exchanges were clearing up remaining differences.
Every Station in the region now had cruisers and battleships posted aboard. Additional ships beyond that were sent to other regions starting with the Saba and the Yannar regions. To date 2501 cruisers and 288 battleships had been built and dispatched to their first assignments. This resulted in revised tactics, some of which had not yet been tested or applied. It was felt that it would not be long before the new equipment would be put to the test. Crews of the new vessels were clearly excited since their actions felt more personal, no doubt due to the size of the vessels in which they would engage conflict situations.
Chapter 35: Pared's Surprise
Station 1 in orbit at Malone –
Station 101 in orbit at Pared –
May 1 – C Day 610
“Great, I am overdue to touch bases with him, please put him on.”
“Grigori, how are you and your son and granddaughter. I have been remiss in not calling you sooner.”
“I am well my friend. I must meet admit that I had not expected this duty to be so strange, but I like it. The study of this people is so different than I expected. I for one should know better than to allow preconceived notions to gain a foothold. But that is now under control. My family is well. Little Anya is growing like a weed. I am very much enjoying this new adventure in life.”
“The observation of the people on Pared has been very interesting. Their attitude is most encouraging. They have just discovered FTL travel and have two vessels that can travel at about 6xSL. Their technology base would have suggested that they were capable of more speed than they appear to have. They are preparing an exploratory trip to a unoccupied system about 4 light years distant. Our scans indicate that their construction and drive are sound. This is a remarkable feat given their apparent short time in space. Seems like they should have been at this stage long before this. They are a peaceful folk and have little in the way of a military. I believe that they are ready for initial contact. Samara has sent the review and her comments to Barana.”
“Well Grigori, ready to give this a try, I can listen in if you like.”
“I would be delighted. I feel like I know these people already. Maxs Samas is the Pared President so he will be my first contact. Samara, would you please hail the president and we can do this.”
The response when it came, surprised everyone. “Ah Samara and General Baranof, I had wondered when you might contact us. I am pleased that you have elected to do so at this time. We thought that you would delay much longer since our space development is at such an apparent early stage. We thought that we might have to take the initiative. We know that you have been studying us but we have also been studying you. That is fair, is it not?”
Grigori was laughing, “Greetings to you President Samas, you have certainly surprised us. I assume that you detected and/or heard us telepathically.”
“That is correct, I hope this does not alarm you.”
“Not at all, in fact this makes things much easier. The Commander of our fleet is listening to this conversation. I am sure at some point he will want to say hello.”
“We would like that. I see that you have some of my species on his vessel, Sass and Kaxas Baax. We would most enjoy meeting them in person when that is possible. I also wish to thank you for the way you avoided the conflict with the Gorth. Fate has given that people a harsh hand and your efforts have reversed that. For this reason we welcome contact with you.”
“Mr. President, would you and persons you select wish to come aboard for a tour of the Station and a chat?”
“Indeed, we would Grigori, and please call me Maxs. I believe it will be easier on your tongue. Also your command of our language is impressive. Can we have about fifteen minutes to gather my people together? There will be six of us.”
“Certainly, Just speak out loud to Samara and she will transport you when you are ready.”
“That is good.”
“Hank, I think you might want to be here for this.”
“Agreed Grigori, you handled that surprise very nicely. I probably would have needed one of Sass’ headbands. I’ll explain that later. We will be there in about ten or eleven minutes. We are on the way.”
Hank called his command team together and explained what had just happened.
Sass chuckled and twirled an elastic headband around one finger saying, “I thought we might need these fairly soon.”
They arrived in orbit at Pared, transported to Station 101 and gathered at the lodge. The lodge on each Station had become the principal meeting place at each of the Stations. They did not have to wait long. A call came in from President Samas indicating that they were ready. Samara transported the party to the lodge. Grigori did the introductions and made sure everyone was comfortable. Sass had suggested to Samara the refreshments that would be suitable to the Saban palate.
Maxs introduced his wife, two cabinet members and two legislators and welcomed the Antoran fleet representatives to the Pared system. He then proceeded to relate what he thought was the Antoran fleet role and purpose in the region. For the most part, his perception was correct and needed only a few minor corrections.
Grigori confirmed their understanding. “Our reason for contacting you today is to invite you to join us. We have found that the various species that are part of the fleet are more together than we might be as individual species each going its own way.”
Maxs went on to say, “Given our understanding of your purpose, we would be delighted to join you. As you are by now aware our population is heavily telepathic. Roughly 99% of our people have the talent. We have learned how to increase the incidence of the talent. We admire what you have elected to do with the talent and the peacekeeping role you have assumed. This is something to which we wish to contribute.“
Hank responded, “President Samas, We would welcome your participation. Grigori and Samara will be your primary contacts while they are posted in this system. We have a definite shortage of Saban telepaths on our Stations. Those of your people willing to serve will be a great asset. We recently discovered how to switch on telepathy in our entire population. Currently about 4 million of our Station is telepathic and we expect that number to rise to about 41 million in another month. The remaining millions on our Station will follow over the course of the next few months. Similar advances are being made on all of our fleet Stations. By the end of the year we expect to be more than 25% telepathic and after that we expect to continue to increase that number. We wish to assure that we are not causing problems for those not presently talented. It is quite an adjustment.”
“We have several million of our people ready to join you now. We will discuss with Grigori how to integrate those who wish to join you here, how to best do so.”
“Grigori, Hank, there is another issue about which we wish to speak. You have recently addressed the trepida-tions of the Rotans at Rotagilla. You have a much larger issue with the Rotans at Gnuxet. They are very much out of control and that needs to be addressed soon before it gets further out of hand. They have already hurt or killed many more persons than you know. They routinely invade whomever they wish and take whatever they want. They have been doing this for a very long time and that is a sad state of affairs. We do not see any redeeming values for these people. We believe that they must be isolated to their own planet and quarantined. We do not see any other valid or workable solution. They must be stopped.”
“We have 20,000 of our people that are ready to depart today with you if you wish to have them. All are aware of your T-Raptor methods and are willing to serve there as needed. It is my belief that this group can bring even further capabilities to your teams. We can also show Sass how we do this so he can also use the same techniques.”
“If they are ready now, I would suggest sending 5,000 to Grigori and the other 15,000 to me and then we will go check on what is happening at Gnuxet. In the meantime, I will send the two Stations I have at Gorth to Gnuxet to back up Station 161, Nkiruka and Emil Bikel. I thank you for the reminder, I have just started to get an itch about something out that way so it is time to act.”
“Grigori and Hank, as much as I would like to tour this marvelous Station now, I think it would be best if we had our people transferred immediately so you can address the developing situation at Gnuxet. I will call Barana and Samara when our people are ready to transport up.” Samas and his party then returned to Pared. Five minutes later the first of the Pared recruits started to arrive with their families and personnel effects. Three hours later, all were aboard and Station One prepared to depart. Meanwhile Hank had reassigned Stations 110 and 166 to Gnuxet.
# At Harris, Planet Malone, Same Day
#
Lorena Wells Sanders and her husband Charles had formed a small corporation with Curt and Linda Foster and the AI Crystal who had for convenience adopted the last name of Collins. They likewise created the necessary background as an émigré from one of the Fleet Stations thus disguising how she had obtained her education and making it essentially impossible to perform a background check on her. Ostensibly she was from the planet Vast and had trouble adjusting to the reversed horizon found on all Stations and did not wish to return her home planet for personal reasons. A plausible fabrication.
Lorena, with Barana's assistance had enhanced the mobility package for Crystal to the point that she could not be distinguished from human. She could move about very easily and was not readily recognized. The structure was enhanced biomechanical and even produced what sounded like heartbeat under a stethoscope. It was a very convincing construct. Lorena had suggested that the Fleet might wish to use the same kind of construct on its cruisers to provide a friendly interface for the crew and Station members.
The small corporation they had created was intended to be a structure for producing scientific advances based on the skills of Lorena and Crystal, essentially a think tank with its campus in a rural setting, Harris, where her husband continued on as chief of police.
She did not disclose that she had activated the AI, Crystal, nor did she have any intention of doing so. The actual location for Crystal's core was likewise not known and her mobility package kept her in constant contact with her primary core. The Fleet quietly provided all the funding they could possibly want. The Fleet had already benefited immensely from the arrangement with the AI advances currently in operation in their auxiliary vessels.