by S A Pavli
‘Um....thank you Malanisa,” I said reluctantly, then remembered that, like it or not, I was Earth’s representative. My duty was to put aside personal likes and dislikes and do my duty “I shall be happy to join you this evening,” I finished smoothly. I was aware of Manera’s glare drilling a hole in the side of my head but I smiled politely at Melanisa and Fezram before following Sartra ‘our guide’ out of the room.
We were conducted to our quarters by a silent Sartra. They were roomy and comfortable and we sat and talked for a bit.
“I was sure they were going to fake an accident and kill us,” said Manera when we were alone. I comforted her with an arm around her shoulders.
“There would have been no point in them doing that,” I said gently. “They have achieved part of their aim, to prevent me from returning to Earth. Now they will be working to achieve the second part.”
“Which is?” she asked.
“To put off contact for as long as possible while the Hianja re-arm. You heard what she said, they want to deal with the Human race from a position of overwhelming military strength.”
“I think they do not want to deal with the Human race at all. They are terrified of something new and they see it as a threat.”
“It has always been like that,” I said, “There are those who respond to change negatively, and others..,” and I gave her a squeeze to illustrate what I meant, “...who are more positive. Some see change as a threat, others as an opportunity. Sadly, these people got off to a bad start with the Human race. They were introduced to the very worst aspects of our personality instead of the best. I am just amazed that the Earth authorities allowed this individual, this Scoutship Captain whose ship they discovered, that they allowed him to take a library of violent films on his ship. I guess they never imagined what would happen.” I shook my head in disbelief. “Anyway..,” I turned a stern gaze onto her.
“You should not stay here,” I said. “You can’t do anything here, they need you back on Mesaroyat.”
“I think you are safer here with me than without me. If they engineer an accident to kill you.” She looked stubborn. “I am a big girl. I can make my own decisions.”
“You are a big girl,” I agreed approvingly .
Some time later our door communicator buzzed. It was our “guide” Sartra.
“Captain, I have been asked to escort you and Manera to the Dining hall.”
That evening as we lay in bed, Manera snuggled up to me, her fragrant hair tickling my nostrils. I pulled her close, enjoying the feel of her lithe silky body caressing mine.
“Interesting evening,” I murmured, “Old Malanisa and Fezram were perfect hosts.” And indeed they had been. The discussion had ranged over many subjects. They were constantly probing, asking questions about Earth, probing my attitudes and opinions. I took it in good spirit, determined to show them that their preconceptions of Earth were wrong. We were all being very careful to show how civilised and urbane we all were. Apart from Manera, who was unable to contain her hostility.
Chapter 31
The next couple of days passed fairly uneventfully. My relations with my captors were cool but not unfriendly and I continued to work at persuading them that their preconception of Humans were wrong. I believe that I was making significant progress in that area, particularly with the two male Guardians, who seemed less obsessed or fanatical. Malanisa continued to be uneasy with me, and her relationship with Manera continued to be cold and distant. Neither of them attempted to hide their dislike of each other.
Guardians Fezram Lamas and Guardian Semeta on the other hand remained friendly and sociable, seeking out my company for long chats about all aspects of Earth life. They were fascinated by Earth history, particularly the 20th and 21st Centuries and how we coped with own mini ‘Great Disasters’. I came to like the two old chaps and to believe that they were genuinely acting out of a sense of patriotism. After the second day, I persuaded them to give me and Manera full access to Comms and to have conversations with Kemato and the other Guardians. I had also been allowed, surprisingly, to converse with Alfred, although because we were aware that we were being overheard, our conversations were fairly stilted.
It was on the morning of the third day that the Hianja Prime delegation arrived. Five ships popped out of Hyperspace and announced their presence on all Comms channels. It was early morning and we were woken out of a deep sleep by the insistent buzzing of the Comms console. Manera answered it and her exclamation persuaded me to reluctantly drag myself awake. It was Fezram Lamas who broke the news. Manera put the ships up on the comms screen and I looked with interest. It was impossible to tell how large they were, but they looked completely different from other Hianja ships most of which were cylindrical, converging to a point at the front where the Hyperspace doughnut was, and with a dumpy rear end where the AG doughnut was. The design was largely dictated by the requirements of the Hyperspace drive and Artificial Gravity generators. They generated a cylindrical field encompassing the diameter and length of the ship.
These ships were circular, like the traditional ‘flying saucer’, but they were two saucers bolted together, one above the other. I peered closely at them, trying to see where the Hyperspace and AG generators were, and then realised, that the saucers were the Generators. The ship was the bit in the middle. But that meant that the habitable part must be tiny, unless...
“Manera, how big are those ships?” I asked carefully. She flicked a few keys on the console and a grid appeared.
“Each square on the grid is one Jinat,” she said. A Jinat I knew was 0.8 Kilometres. Each ship comfortably filled a square on the grid.
“Are you sure about the scale Manera?” I asked. She double checked carefully.
“Yes,” she whispered “What are those things?” I looked at her in surprise.
“You have never seen these before?”
“No, never. These things are huge. They are more than one Jinat in diameter. What are they?”
“Well, hopefully, they are the Hianja Prime Delegation. If those ships are that huge, how many of them are there, a few thousand?”
“The delegation is just 173 individuals, each one representing a Hianja planet.”
“How did they get them together in such a short time?” I asked.
“They are based at Hianja Prime.”
“Your whole Government has come?” I asked in disbelief.
“Our whole Government?” Manera laughed. “Paul, the whole of Hianja Prime is the Government for the 173 planets. Millions of people on Hianja Prime, the whole population in fact, are employed in Government. These 173 individuals have been nominated to represent their planets in this matter only.”
“I see,” I said chastened. So what about these ships, how is it you have never seen anything like them before?”
“I have never been to Hianja Prime,” she replied, “Perhaps they build their ships differently there.” It sounded a bit weak to me, but I did not pursue the question any further as clearly Manera was as baffled as I was.
“If the discs are the Hyperspace and AG Generators, then these ships must be immensely powerful,” I remarked. “Is there any way of telling how fast they are moving?” I asked. Manera played with her console for a bit, murmuring questions at the computer, before settling back and looking at me.
“They are decelerating towards Mesaroyat at a steady five Gravities. Their current speed is 80000 Jinat per Sarat,” shat was as about 70000 kph, as close as makes no difference.
“They will be with us late this afternoon,” she said pensively. I gaped at her with disbelief.
“Five gravities? How is that possible?”
“Gravity control Paul. The ship is decelerating at five gravities but the internal gravity is normal.”
“Impressive,” I said. “But why are they in such a hurry? As far as they know, I should have just left for Earth which means it would be weeks before the Human delegation would be due.”
“Maybe they know abo
ut the situation?” said Manera thoughtfully.
“I don’t see how,” I muttered, “Is there any way the Guardians could have got a message off to them?”
“Yes actually. We have a Hyperspace Comms Device in permanent orbit outside the gravity boundary. They could have sent a message without the dissidents being aware of it. That was quick thinking on somebody’s part if that is what happened,” she said.
“God those ships look impressive,” I muttered, “It’s very odd,” I remarked as we quickly dressed, “That you have never seen anything like these ships before.”
“The Hianja Federation is too huge for any one person to know all of it,” she replied. We were interrupted by a chime from the Comms Console. Fezram Lamas’s face appeared.
“Paul, Manera, please answer. Meeting, fourteenth floor conference room five as soon as you can? Sartra is on her way to guide you,” he said quickly.
“We are on our way,” replied Manera switching off the Comms unit.
We spent the rest of the morning treating ourselves with different views of the approaching ships on the huge screens arrayed around the conference room. It became apparent that Kemato and her colleagues were in communication with the Delegation already, and I could sense the unease on the part of our captors at being ignored. Despite my enquiries however, no one would admit to any knowledge of what the huge ships were or any technical details about them. Fezram agreed with my remarks as we gathered for some lunch.
“They are unbelievable,” he said, shaking his bald head and shovelling a forkful of green slimy stuff into his mouth. “This Teskerian slottkas is delicious,” he added, chewing appreciatively.
“Mmmm,” I looked doubtfully at the green mess and decided to give it a miss.
“These ships seem to use quite different design principles from normal Hianja ships,” I pointed out, fiddling with the seal on one of my own food containers, something that purported to be beef chilli with rice and vegetables. My captors had obligingly allowed a shipment of my ship’s rations to be delivered.
“Not so much different principles,” replied Semeta, who I remembered had a background in engineering before being elected a Guardian. “They are just on such a large scale, it requires a change from the normal method of construction. The AG and Multi-Space engines have to generate such massive fields, the standard modules would just melt. You see, the heat generated rises exponentially with the size of the ship. Most of those two huge discs must be to allow heat dissipation.”
“I see,” I said, waiting for my food container to heat up. “Why build such large ships then?” I added thoughtfully. Semeta inclined his head to show his own puzzlement.
“Unless...,” I said thoughtfully. “Unless, they are transport ships,” I had an interesting idea. “When you are settling a new planet, don’t you need huge transport ships? You know, to carry machinery and manufacturing equipment, as well as the thousands of people to colonise the planet?” Semeta shook his head again.
“It is hundreds of years since we settled a new planet, Verana is the first suitable planet we have found for a long time, but we have records going back thousands of years. Nothing like these ships appears anywhere.”
We finished our lunch in a thoughtful silence, and hurriedly returned to our control centre, a large conference room with all the appropriate communications and computer equipment. Just about everyone was there, unable to tear themselves away from the developing drama. As the huge interstellar ships drew closer, we tried to discern more details of their structure, but because they were flying ‘head on’, and seemed to be completely black, it was almost impossible to do so. However, Semeta’s theory that the huge discs were largely cooling fins seemed credible. They were covered in baffles and vents, as well as many large and mysterious blisters and bulges whose purpose we could not determine. By now, the ships were decelerating at a more normal one gravity.
There was a large comms screen on the wall next to me which was showing one of the giant Hianja ships against a background of stars. There was not much to see, just a black disc, pitted and pockmarked with blisters and bulges. It had started to move sideways-on in the last few minutes and I could see the centre spindle a little more clearly. As the ship continued to turn, more and more of what I thought was the habitation module came into view. There were windows and a number of large black areas which I took to be the doors into the shuttle bays. They must be hundreds of metres in size to be visible against the vast bulk of the ship.
It was from one of those black areas that I spotted what appeared to be a swarm of glittering insects come hurtling out. The insects separated and moved away from the ship at tremendous speed. Whoever was controlling the electronic telescope which was focusing on the ship also spotted the swarm of ‘insects’ and the view refocused on the ‘swarm’ instead of the ship. The swarm expanded and separated out into individual dots which expanded rapidly to become ships.
At first they were hard to see clearly until the telescope managed to focus onto one long enough for us to see some detail. It was clearly a craft designed for space and for atmospheric use because it had wings. But wings on a ship that had an Artificial Gravity Drive? What was the point? And the craft had an AG Drive for sure because I could clearly see the massive doughnut towards the rear of the craft, just behind the stubby wings.
But there was also something I had not seen on a Hianja ship before. A contrail behind the craft, the sure sign of fusion rockets. So the craft had both an AG drive and rockets. It would be capable of massive acceleration if it used both methods of propulsion at the same time. Looking closer at the craft I could also see what clearly looked like missile bays and the snouts of energy guns. These were military ships for sure, and formidably armed.
I looked towards Manera and she was looking as bewildered as I felt. Her eyes met mine and she shook her head at my questioning look. It looked very much as if the Hianja Prime delegation had arrived in a massive armada of heavily armed ships.
The much vaunted Hianja aversion to violence looked a bit thin on the ground at this point! Had the Vasmeranta dissidents won the argument already? In the face of the perceived threat from Earth, the Hianja delegation had indeed decided to demonstrate an overwhelming military capability.
Chapter 32
Unbelievably, my captors seemed to be as stupefied as I was regarding developments. They were staring goggle-eyed at the comms screen, seemingly unable to believe their eyes. The Guardians in general were whispering amongst themselves, looking shocked and baffled. I began to wonder if some massive conspiracy was being inflicted upon us. I had the bizarre thought that these ships may not be Hianja, that a new alien race had suddenly descended upon us, taking advantage of the confusion to overwhelm us in one foul swoop. I shook my head, dismissing these thoughts as panic stricken confusion and made my way over to where Malanisa and Fezram were deep in conversation.
“What’s happening?” I asked, “What are these ships, where are they from?”
“They are what we said they were,” said Malanisa, “The Hanja Prime Delegation.”
“So much for the so called Hianja aversion to military weapons. I have never seen a more fearsome array of space weaponry in my life,” I declared dryly.
“This is as much a surprise to us as it is to you,” exclaimed Malanisa. “We have never seen such ships before,” but she looked pleasantly surprised, indeed almost triumphant.
“Well, it looks like your friends have been keeping a few cards up their sleeve,” I said. “Have they communicated with you yet?” Malanisa looked questioningly at Fezram before continuing.
“They have only asked questions,” she replied.
“They never gave you any reason to believe that they were coming with a military escort?” I asked.
“No.” replied Malanisa, “This is just as much a surprise for me,” she repeated. I wondered back to Manera, who was at another comms screen at the other end of the room,
“I cannot see how a military
force like that can be maintained without the secret leaking out,” I mused.
“There is one other possibility,” mused Manera thoughtfully. “If this force is not under the control of the Council....,” she paused for a moment, seemingly examining her idea before expressing it. I waited for her to continue. “It is either under the control of a small clique, some group who have taken it upon themselves to secretly construct a military force, for their own reasons. Or it is a totally automated force, under the control of one or more AI’s.” We paused for a few moments to digest these ideas.
“Is it possible for a small clique to construct such a force?” I asked. “The resources required are enormous. I cannot see how they could do it without Computer and AI support, in large amounts.” Manera nodded.
“Yes, if people are involved, they must get Computer and AI support.”
“Would your AI’s co-operate in such a subversive venture?” Manera shrugged without comment, her eyes fixed on the screen in fascination.
Meanwhile, the Council’s Mother ships were taking up orbital positions around Mesaroyat, while their fighters split up and took up positions close to the Dissidents ships. Were they re-enforcing the Dissidents I asked myself, or were they surrounding them. The answer was soon revealed by the leader of the Hianja Prime delegation. His face appeared on the Comms screen, a very old face, the oldest Hianja face I had seen. It was wrinkled and weathered by the years, but surprisingly strong and clear eyed.