by David Buck
The Maveen also provided special assistance with two of their mini probes hovering nearby each team with sensors scanning for any non Trader life forms. The crew nervously scanned the larger air ducts with concern, and was generous with the water when they dealt with these ducts. As they passed through sections of the ship other crew members following behind brought the electronics back online and quickly sealed of entire sections of the ship.
The captain was not in the least worried about the salt in the ocean water. From what he could tell the Voorde did not seem to like the salt either, and the advanced materials of his ship would not corrode from a little saltwater. He did however have some concerns with damaged power conduits in areas of the ship worst affected by either fighting the Voorde or the rough landing. The only other concern he had was that one of the ten sneak ships that was hovering in shallower water still could not activate its cloaking mechanism. Once the crew had swept through the hull they would start the repairs and the refueling of the ship by splitting the seawater into hydrogen and oxygen.
Meanwhile in the shielded research rig, the now larger Voorde queen stirred restlessly amongst the drones packed around her. The rogue Voorde drones had been been hunted down and her own drones had only managed to kill two more of the now very wary Traders. The ship had left the great void of space and the rough landing had almost caused the drones to panic out of their shelter. A few of the drones that had been left to seek out food had hidden elsewhere on the ship. These drones had shown signs of illness since the landing and they were barred from returning.
Instinctively the Voorde queen knew that the time was right to begin attacking the Trader crew in force and hopefully gain a new planet to feed on. She sent out other drones to locate Traders, who seemed to be busy elsewhere in the ship. However, she was starting to feel unwell herself, with painful black spots appearing on her arms.
***
The watch officer at the Diego Garcia naval base looked at clock, noting it was 11pm, and then raised his eye brows in consternation at the reports coming in from the west coast of Australia. He scanned through the sketchy satellite reports of a strange group of objects entering the Earth’s atmosphere somewhere above the central Indian Ocean. The chief petty officer was well aware of the increase in phone calls and tense conversations as his watch crew sought further information.
The officer looked out at the nearby docks from the two story command bunker. He could identify the two cruisers and the amphibious warfare ship easily enough by their bulk under the dockside lights. The petty officer also knew that several destroyers, frigates and submarines were tied up at the docks at a high degree of readiness. The base commander, Admiral Johnston, was due in shortly to convene a briefing, and several of the senior ship commanders were leaving their ships at short notice to make the briefing.
The petty officer felt a distinct chill as he read the satellite report analysis again. The unknown objects had entered the atmosphere were they were first detected, and there was no detection recorded for the objects outside the atmosphere, despite a constellation of US spy satellites in a variety of orbital inclinations. The objects had then disappeared again, though satellite sensing had show faint disturbances four hundred kilometers off the coast of Australia. The officer knew that two Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft, with their sophisticated underwater sensors had just been dispatched to the location.
Within a few hours, the situation would be hopefully better known. Despite his watch finishing in an hour, the chief petty office stayed on duty with most of his watch when their replacements came on duty at midnight. The only other update at change of watch was that the rest of the US 5th fleet was steaming at high speed towards Diego Garcia from their earlier carrier based exercises to the North. The admiral gave him a curt nod of approval around 1am when he strode past looking very intent. For his part, the petty officer assisted as much as possible through the long early hours, as they waited for the two aircraft to reach the target location.
***
Omerio flew his fast trader ship almost recklessly; for he knew that Gindane would not hesitate to confront the Traders about landing on Earth. She had always been more of a stickler for the edicts than he had ever been, as witnessed by his own meeting with the Traders themselves he thought darkly to himself. The possibility of his intended life mate being killed by beings he both liked and respected otherwise under ordinary circumstances galled the young Barus.
Omerio intently considered the next jump location as his ship sped across another star system and he quickly analyzed the data he was receiving from his sensors. Omerio was not taking any chances, and as he flew the ship it had remained cloaked to avoid the attention of several Tilmud ships at extreme range.
Unfortunately the lead Tilmud ship, one of their new light cruisers, released a powerful active scan that temporarily blinded his ship’s sensors. The laser communications link crackled as the cruiser hailed his ship and altered course for an intercept. Instinctively, Omerio altered the ships course even further away from the distant Tilmud ships and increased speed as the ships sensors came back online automatically. The laser link crackled as the cruiser hailed him again, and a voice the young Barus recognized barked a guttural command.
‘Heave to and stand by to be boarded by order of the Tilmud vassal nation, loyal subjects of the Zronte.’
Omerio considered several replies, none of them too polite, before tersely replying to the message.
‘Admiral Biruldesec, you are well outside your jurisdiction zone and I therefore have no obligation to stop for you.’
The harsh Tilmud voice on the cruiser grated on with a series of threats and invectives before Omerio switched off the link. Shortly afterwards the Barus trading ship made another hyper drive jump, and the lumbering Tilmud ships later approached and analyzed the jump point.
***
Lieutenant Garendestat raced down the passageway at breakneck speed in his spacesuit, with his patrol team following him as best they could manage past several dead Voorde drones. The Voorde had made an abortive attempt on the ship’s bridge while the rest of the Trader crew was sweeping the ship with the seawater hoses. Two drones had even attacked a Maveen mini probe, and they now lay in smoking pieces at the base of the mini probe. Another mini probe was coming back to the secured bridge rear door from the other end of the long top deck passageway that ran across the wing of the Trader ship. Garendestat screeched to a halt outside the door and tersely radioed the bridge again.
‘Area secure and the Voorde have retreated, please advise of any casualties.’
The bridge responded with a report of two wounded slightly, as apparently the presence of the Maveen mini probes had allowed the bridge to be secured. The second Maveen mini probe came to rest nearby and regarded Garendestat with two enormous life-like eyes.
‘Lieutenant, the Voorde fled to a location in the main cargo bay.’
Garendestat almost felt a sense of relief as he immediately ordered the main cargo bay sealed off. With the ship nearly scoured clean and the Voorde all in the main cargo bay, their chances were looking up. One of his team members pointed out a series of black discolorations affecting several of the dead Voorde drones. The team member grabbed a section of Voorde skin that seemed to come away from the corpse in his gloved hand. Lieutenant Garendestat repeated the same experiment on another Voorde corpse and radioed Captain Narindestat.
‘Sir the bridge is now secured, but you have to see what has happened to the Voorde drones.’
The captain answered that he was on his way with his team shortly, and Lieutenant Garendestat squatted to patiently look over the dead Voorde drone.
***
Steve considered the radio traffic with keen interest, as media reports stated that HMAS Sydney and HMAS Melbourne had sailed at sunrise from HMAS Stirling naval base. The ships were heading for a search location off the south west coast that they would arrive at in less than two days. He had also heard news reports of two US Navy Poseidon
P-8 surveillance aircraft from Diego Garcia landing at the Pearce airbase in the early hours of the morning to refuel.
The two planes had left shortly afterwards, and were apparently returning over the same stretch of ocean that the two Australian frigates were now heading towards. Steve remembered his own time in the navy over ten years ago when the pandemic had first erupted. As he considered the more mundane role he was now in, he said a silent prayer for former shipmates.
Steve looked up from his charts, by habit he had circled an area off the southern western coast where all the strange activity was occurring. Samantha walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder as she briefly looked at the charts.
‘Steve, the Lotus Marai just called Dan, and he is going across to re-check the fish tanks before we begin the loading.’
Steve looked across at the massive fish pens of the Australian co-operative floating several hundred meters away, and came back to the present. He smiled back at his wife and answered.
‘I will go across also as I want to check that new generator again, we may need it if those tanks are still playing up.’
As the runabout was lowered and Steve accompanied Dan across to the Lotus Marai he kept a secure grip on his satellite phone and spare battery pack. The former officer was sure that he would be hearing from either the RAN or the US research team still at Garden Island before the day was out.
***
The Barus admiral strode around the massive meeting room on Cephrit Star Base 31, and regarded the other races assembled with concern, or rather the lack of presence of one race with distinct concern. Admiral Baredio was tall for a Barus male, just over three meters in height. He used his height to stare down at the assembled Cephrit officers and Deltas Vass drones. To one side several of his officers stood next the Cephrit Station master, who for his part kept very quiet. The Barus admiral was obviously not in a good mood as he spoke again.
‘So do we know why the Tilmud are gathering at their star base yet? If it was not for the long range reports from our research fleet of this Trader ship making an unauthorized landing on…’
He paused as an aide whispered. ‘Sol three or Earth...’ before raising his voice as he continued.
‘I would be insisting on an inspection of that star base to discover what the Tilmud are up to this time. I bring my cruise squadron across hundreds of light years of space and I hear Admiral Biruldesec is ‘too busy’ to come to this star base.’
The assembled Barus fleet officers wisely suppressed showing derision at the Admiral’s emphasis on ‘too busy’. For a Barus, Admiral Baredio had the reputation for being hard edged, as no doubt the few Cephrit and Deltas Vass not acquainted with him were now discovering. Admiral Baredio was going to speak again, but he paused as older but still impressive Cephrit, dressed in the senior uniform of the Cephrit star fleet made an appearance.
‘Baredio, we do know that the Trader ship is a single ship only, even if it is rated a battle cruiser, so your fleet alone should be able to handle it.’
Admiral Baredio bowed to the Cephrit fleet master, who in return gave the distinctive Cephrit bow of one to an equal, before replying.
‘Fleet master, with all due respect we cannot battle the Trader ship in a haven world system. This is true unless they have actually attacked these humans on their own world or broken other edicts relating to contact. Now if the Tilmud are up to something then this star base and dozens of star systems around it will be affected.’
The fleet master waited in the patient Cephrit manner before replying in the chirring voice of his species.
‘Baredio, I make the same case, I will not take my fleet away from this star base, and indeed I suggest you only take half your fleet and some Deltas Vass ships to the human world.’
At this point the Barus and the Cephrit both turned to the Deltas Vass drone standing in front of the collection of officers. The drone was the current speaker of the Deltas Vass fleet, and was dressed in a colorful green and orange tunic that would have rendered him almost invisible in his home world’s forests. The drone bowed to both admiral and fleet master and intoned a reply.
‘The Fleet Matriarch wishes to solely go to the human world of Earth. For she has a foretelling, passed from a planet matriarch, that this planet will become significant in the following centuries. The Deltas Vass have little interest at this stage in the squabbles of other vassal races.’
‘Eternal glory to the matriarchs.’ ‘Eternal glory to the matriarchs.’
Now repeated automatically around the vast chamber as the other Deltas Vass drones responded to the homily.
Admiral Baredio turned to the Cephrit fleet master, who had remained remarkably calm in just being told that the Cephrit were effectively on their own in their probable dispute with the Tilmud. Despite his own forces being significant, the Barus Admiral would not interdict between two quarrelling vassal races without the express orders of the Barus High Fleet Command. The Cephrit fleet master was well aware of this limitation, but gave no sign of being concerned by this fact. The Barus admiral then idly wondered which Deltas Vass matriarch was the current puppet master in this area of space.
‘Not that it would do me any good to protest.’ Baredio thought to himself, with the Deltas Vass firmly in the favor of both the Vorinne and the Zronte overlords themselves.
As the Deltas Vass returned to the ship and only Barus and Cephrit remained in the room, Baredio ordered all of his officers over to the doors at the far end of the room. He watched with approval as the Cephrit fleet master did the same with his officers, but then beckoned the senior Cephrit station master to join them. The two Cephrit and the Barus quietly conversed amongst themselves, with the fleet master cajoling the station master to reveal all he knew.
***
The Voorde queen was feeling distinctly ill and evil tempered. She snapped her massive jaws at a drone that got too close, and the smaller male wisely backed away. Black splotches covered her arms and up torso now, and strings of mucous poured from her mouth. The wall covered in Voorde eggs was going black and half the eggs were already dead.
She glanced over at a few of the drones nearby who were listless, and would be left behind if they did not answer her commands. The more intelligent queen cautiously raised her head from the research rig as it was time to leave her nest with the able bodied drones. Leaving the research rig hatchway, the queen and her drones raced for an open cargo hatch on the upper rear deck of the cargo hold.
The Voorde swarmed over the rear of the hold, cautiously giving several large black cylindrical objects in the hold a wide berth. The Voorde queen felt better that they were moving, the strange black sickness seemed to affect them more for some reason when they went dormant. She led her drones to an upper hold first so they could await an opportunity to surprise the Traders.
The Maveen probes in their mounting cradles watched the Voorde flee the research rig silently. As the Voorde entered the upper rear hold to hide, the door was closed remotely from the bridge and the override on the door disengaged. Inside the rear cargo hold the Voorde queen reacted with fury, immediately killing two of her slower drones. She sent a few drones in through the air ducts to find them also blocked. In desperation the queen clumsily toggled the inactive door controls for the rear upper hold before she smashed them to pieces in her rage.
‘What a rage she has, this queen, though not full grown, is every bit as nasty as that other queen we killed earlier.’
Captain Narindestat observed to his relieved bridge crew then continued again.
‘Lieutenant Garendestat, please secure and weld the hatch on the research rig. We will deal with the Voorde our leisure with them now confined in two locations in the main hold area and the ship scoured of their presence.’
Garendestat, in his replenished space suit, now lumbered over to the research rig with his team, and they began securing the top hatch with a welded cover plate. He looked in the research rig window for a long moment before replying to the captai
n.
‘Sir, the Voorde nested in the research rig and it is a real mess inside there. I am just starting the welding now.’
For good measure the lieutenant then also tested the cargo loading straps and clamps holding the research rig. The captain acknowledged his reply and continued speaking to his bridge crew.
‘I also want ongoing status reports on both the fuel refining process and our continued repairs.’
As the Trader captain settled back into his command chair and started to relax the bridge had a visitor. Emeria, the special friend of his son and the ship’s medical officer. She paused after entering the bridge and gave him a respectful bow to request permission to speak as she was not a bridge crew member. The captain also knew that Emeria was one of the best Trader alien biologists in space in any Trader ship, and that was why he had asked her to look into the new illness that afflicted the Voorde. The young medical officer looked really worried, and with rising concern, Captain Narindestat got a graphic update on the conclusions Emeria’s research was leading to regarding the dead Voorde drones.
***
Gindane sat in her quarters going over the Dradfer research notes as her ship finished transiting the final star system on the journey towards Earth. The research from the Dradfer colony occupied the senior researcher’s thoughts as she leafed through the information on one screen and made annotations on her personal tablet. Over the last week Gindane had selected whole sections of the research for junior associates to cross reference, and the associates had formed similar conclusions to her own.