“Tom, put me through to Captain Artok.”
“Yes, Captain,” Tom Gardner said.
“Captain Artok,” Slone began. “We will wait here in this system and remain invisible. Chief scout Alaya Slone will go in from here along with Primary scout Tavia Marshal and deliver the message. I expect it will take up to a week for them to return. We will remain in orbit around the gas giant in this system.”
“Sss. Yes, Captain Slone. Moving to the gas giant now.”
Tactical showed the approximate location of the invisible ships and Slone could see the Avenging Talon pull away and move towards the gas giant. Slone called down to the hangar deck, “Alaya, you are cleared to depart. We are the only ones in this system.”
“Leaving now, Captain. If all goes well, we will see you in a week.”
On the hangar deck, the private yacht, Unicorn, took off and exited the ship. As soon as they were clear of the hanger force field, they became visible and cut their engines. Tavia then put up the sails and the small yacht moved towards the outbound slipstream heading to the Sinclair home world, sailing on the energy flows from the system star. Aboard the yacht were Alaya, Tavia and Hatch, who was there to protect Tavia and work the hidden invisibility controls if it became necessary to make the yacht disappear. This was the same yacht Tavia had used during the Rising Star mission and she was well aware of how it handled. She also was aware of its hidden electronics, making it an excellent spy ship. They entered the outbound slipstream and left the system, just as the Tempestas was moving into orbit around the gas giant. It took the better part of a day and a half to reach the slipstream leading to the Sinclair home world. Eleven hours after entering the final slipstream, the yacht came out into the Sinclair home system, named Sinclair One. As per universal corporation protocol, all private yachts entering an inhabited system must state their purpose and request a flight plan to a destination in the system or a transit through the system.
“This is the private yacht, Unicorn, from the Republic of New Wales, requesting a flight path to New Chicago,” Alaya spoke into the communication console. Since they were still at the outer reaches of the system, the round trip time for the message would be close to five hours. They maintained course for the planet and Tavia went back to the galley to get some snacks. Since this was a high traffic system, someone would have to stay on the bridge at all times. Hatch was back in the common room, the back wall of which contained the galley. Hatch stood up and bowed to Tavia, but remained silent. She knew that this was an important mission and both Tavia and Alaya were important to her. Hatch was now a mature serpent female who already had a few eggs in the hatchery on Nova Romae, where she lived with Tavia and Centurion Marshal. Hatch also helped with the human children the Marshals were raising. Both of those children were now aboard the Tempestas, as the Romani kept families together even in wartime. Tavia smiled at Hatch as she took the snacks and drinks into the cockpit area of the yacht. She handed Alaya her portion and returned to the copilot’s seat. As they enjoyed their snack they chatted about the things friends chat about. When they were an hour closer to the planet, Alaya sent a special message on a tight bandwidth towards the planet. The message was on a direct frequency to the CEO of Sinclair Corporation, Femi Okar. It was very important that Alaya speak directly to Femi, since cooperation with Sinclair Corp was critical. At the expected time, the message from space control came in with a programmed flight plan to the space station. Tavia set the yacht on the approved course and reprogrammed the autopilot to follow the flight plan. Just under an hour later, a second message was received from space control directing the yacht to bypass the space station and enter the atmosphere. It was approved for the Unicorn to land on the roof of the CEO office building. Tavia sent acknowledgement and again reprogrammed the course into the navigation computer. This time she kept an eye on the controls, since the autopilot cannot be trusted to guide the ship from space to atmosphere. As they sailed towards the planet, there was a lot of ship traffic entering and leaving the area.
“Alaya,” Tavia said as she watched the traffic patterns. “Does it strike you as if there is a lot of military traffic going on here? I would not have expected this much. Is this usual for the Sinclair home world to be on such a military footing?”
“No, something is going on. I’m not sure the information we are bringing will be such a surprise to them after all.”
The Unicorn entered the atmosphere and Alaya flew it to the roof of the CEO’s headquarters. She had done it many times with her old scout ship when she was the youngest daughter of Horatio Sinclair. They shut down the engines and opened the side of the yacht. Hatch stayed behind and hid in the engine compartment behind the master bedroom. There were no guards to meet them, only an attendant who asked them to follow him. If the attendant recognized Alaya, he did not let on. It had been seventeen years since Alaya was forced to leave her home world and now she was more Romani than Sinclair. Both Alaya and Tavia were wearing their scout uniforms with scout service insignias. They were not wearing armor but did have their bandolier with short swords and no grenades on. They carried the Romani dagger on their left side. There was no attempt made to take their weapons. The attendant led them to the elevator that took them down to the CEO office level. They exited and walked through the clerk’s work area and some of them must have recognized Alaya, since there was some pointing of fingers and shocked expressions. She was supposed to have died seventeen years ago. They finally found themselves in front of a door labeled ‘Femi Okar, CEO’. The attendant asked them to wait and went in to announce them. A few seconds later, the door reopened and they were asked to enter. Femi was not sitting at her desk, but rather standing in front of it to greet Alaya as an old friend would. Alaya had always liked Femi and they got along well whenever she was in town. They were not exactly drinking buddies, but they had partied a bit with other members of the corporation. Femi was now in her early sixties, almost twenty years older than Alaya. She had kept herself in shape and was trim. Her dark ebony skin, indicative of her old earth African origin, was still as smooth as Alaya had remembered it. Her hair was still jet black and the job had only added a few strands of gray. As Alaya and Tavia moved across the short distance to where Femi was standing, the latter said, “I thought I was not going to see you again unless we continued the war with Petrov Corp or signed a trade agreement. None of those things have come to pass, yet here you are.”
“It’s good to see you, too, Femi.”
The Sinclair CEO then flashed a big smile and, much to Alaya’s surprised, gave her a hug. “I have truly missed you Alaya,” she said as she broke the hold of the hug.
Alaya wondered what was going on, since they were never hugging friends before. “How have things been going for you?” Alaya asked and then introduced Tavia.
“Have a seat,” Femi offered and signified two chairs opposite hers. There was no desk between them. “The Corporation is doing well, but the infighting for control is a headache.”
“Who would fight with you?”
“Your sisters. They are all married now.”
“The message capsule with my invitation to the weddings must have dropped out of the slipstream,” Alaya said, knowing full well they would have never invited her.
Femi continued, “I wish mine had. They are all fighting for control while fighting each other.”
“My sisters don’t know how to fight for anything. Who is advising them?”
“Their husbands. They married a greedy and despicable lot. If your stepfather were still alive he would have had all his sons-in-law stood against a wall and shot.”
“Well, Femi, you have the power to do that.”
“I know, Alaya, but they all have a good bit of the population on their side. I don’t want to start a civil war.”
“War is why we’re here, Femi. Do you recall the tap node I left with you last time I was here? The one with the last voyage of the Hayden?”
“How can I forget it, Alaya? To
this day some of those images haunt my dreams. It is no wonder poor Horatio was driven mad. If they are still haunting me, who didn’t even know about the incident, how must they have haunted your father, who ordered them?”
“I am here to tell you that horror is descending on us as we speak,” Alaya stated.
Femi looked at Alaya and wondered how much she could tell her, especially since she had no idea whom she was working for. “Tell me, Alaya, are you representing Petrov Corporation? I don’t recognize your uniforms, though it appears, from the emblems you wear, you are still a scout of some kind.”
“Yes, Tavia and I are scouts, but for the Nova Romae military. I now live beyond the Matsua Rim and Petrov Corp is part of our Republic.”
“I actually expected as much,” Femi pointed out. “We have been monitoring activity and know that Lagarde also signed a treaty with your new people.”
“I have been asked to contact you and see if Sinclair Corporation would be interested in a mutual defense treaty with us and the Lagarde Corporation to protect the Spinward marches of human space,” Alaya began. “When we entered your system we saw a lot of military activity, so I assume you are aware of a danger on the horizon.”
Femi was not sure how much she could trust her old friend and former Sinclair heir. She had always known Alaya to be a straight shooter. If she was here with a warning, it must be serious. The Sinclair organization had been studying all incidents of incursion by Nova Romae, and they knew now that the Romani, as they called themselves, were not pirates. They were very powerful and Sinclair had even built super dreadnoughts to counter the threat. Those ships were very expensive and they only had three total built. The fourth was the prototype and was destroyed by the Romani as a Q-ship after taking out one of their ships. Horatio had been a fool to waste it and now the treasury of the corporation was suffering from all of the naval construction costs. Little did Femi know that very prototype was alive and well and modified into a Romani battleship. At present it was parked two systems away and rechristened the NR Tempestas. Femi decided to trust her instincts and trust Alaya. After all, there was a problem coreward and it would eventually get here. Perhaps the Romani knew what it was.
“Alaya, I am sure you are aware that your father, just before his death, made a deal with Brandenburger Corporation to start a new corporate war with Highline Corp with the allies on both sides involved. I actually have no idea why he wanted that, but the war was raging for almost a decade when the Highline Corporation suddenly sued for peace. What was odd was the fact that they were winning. We have been unable to find out the cause of the request, but shortly afterwards we received a message capsule from Brandenburger Corp stating someone violated their coreward territory and they lost contact with the mining bases out there. The military activity you saw was us shifting fleets to our coreward marches to protect our border.”
Alaya was given cart blanche to discuss anything, even the existence of Romani wormhole drives. “The horror that is descending on us is the arrival of the Saltic in our galaxy. They have attacked, and may by now have conquered Coreward Industries.”
“The Saltic from Andromeda?” Femi asked. “Are you certain of this, Alaya?”
“We recovered this video log transmitted to the Highline home world from Coreward Industries.” Alaya handed Femi a tap node she pulled out of her vest pocket.
The CEO got up and placed it into a slot on the desk. A hologram was projected above the desk showing the attack on the Coreward Industries mining base in the Knowles system. Alaya pointed out that the recording was now almost two years old and the current state of affairs was unknown. Femi watched as the Saltic ships came out of nowhere, destroyed the mining base and vanished again.
“Who took this video log?” Femi asked.
“We have no idea. It was sent from the sector base to the Coreward Industries home world. There is no indication of who recorded it.”
Femi looked pensive. “Could this be a fake?”
“Anything is possible,” Alaya responded. “Our techs have been over it and feel it is real. Also, if someone wanted to fake this, they would at least have to know what Saltic ships look like. Only Sinclair Corp and the Romani know that tidbit.”
“Those ships did not appear to come out of a slipstream,” Femi pointed out. “Any ideas about that?”
“What I am about to tell you, we discovered the hard way. They do not travel the slipstreams. They have a device we call a wormhole drive. It enables them to open wormholes anywhere they want in the galaxy and travel there instantaneously.”
Now Alaya could see that Femi was truly worried. “If what you are telling me is true, then we have no defense against them other than to keep a fleet at every major base and abandon the lesser ones. I also saw on the video that they are using beam weapons. Are they as effective as our cannons?”
“Our cannons are superior and they know nothing about missiles. My advice would be missile platforms at all strategic locations with nuclear missiles to take them out as soon as they arrive. As you may recall from the Hayden log, they have an EMP weapon that will incapacitate ships and people.”
A slight shadow of skepticism began to form on Femi’s face. “How do your people know all this?”
Now Alaya had to manage her words carefully, so as not to give away the existence of Romani battleships. “One of our dreadnoughts stumbled across one of their wormholes and was pulled in. I was aboard that dreadnought along with my husband. The wormhole transported us across the galaxy to the other side of the galactic center. There we found ourselves in a Saltic system with a science station and a small fleet. The fleet attacked us and we managed to take out some of their ships but were boarded and suffered 50 percent casualties. The wormhole was still open and we were able to reenter it and close it with a nuclear detonation. It was a near thing for all of us.”
Femi would not have believed the story if she had not seen the video log of the Hayden. She knew Alaya was a trustworthy person and still wished she could have convinced her to help rule Sinclair Corporation. In truth, she knew the danger was real, but to build cannon and missile platforms near all of the mining bases was prohibitive. Thanks to Horatio Sinclair’s last actions before his death, the treasury was spent on building super dreadnoughts to fight a war that was now over. Femi had spent the last decade and a half trying to right the boat, but the corporation was still in the red. Perhaps a mutual defense treaty would not be such a bad thing, especially since Alaya’s new people already control most of Spinward corporate space.
“As I understand it then, Alaya, the Romani would like to sign a mutual defense treaty with Sinclair Corporation?”
“Yes, Femi. I think, given the severity of the current threat, it may be the wise thing to do.”
“Would your people also consider extending the treaty to include our protectorate, the Erie Corporation?”
“I don’t see why not. If you are interested, send a message pod, with your willingness to talk, to Petrovia and they will make sure the right people get it.”
“I’ll consider it,” Femi said and then softened her expression and spoke to Alaya as an old friend. “Tell me, Alaya, how have you been?”
“Wonderful. In a sense, Horatio did me a favor driving me away. I found a man I love and who loves me. We have a daughter who is now sixteen and serves on my ship as a scout. If you ever want to visit us, come to Petrovia and they will send you to our home world. Come as a friend and not a diplomat. I would love to show you what is out there beyond the corporations. We could all prosper through closer ties.”
“Let me give this all some thought.”
Alaya handed Femi a tap node. “This tap node contains all I told you as well as the proposals and treaties we would be interested in. Of course, everything is negotiable. We may be a Republic, but we know how to negotiate a business deal.”
“I will request a discussion with your people and see what resolution we can come to.”
Alaya took her leav
e and she and Tavia, who had been quiet during the entire exchange, got up and the aide, who had brought them to the office, led them back to their ship. After they were settled in, Tavia requested clearance to enter orbit and move to the outbound slipstream in the direction of Petrov Corporation space. Permission was granted and they left New Chicago and were cleared all the way to the slipstream. Several transits later, they returned to the Tempestas and Alaya was home. When they were certain that there were no ships in the system that could monitor them, the Tempestas opened a wormhole and transported into Highline Corporation space along with the Avenging Talon.
Chapter 3 – Highline Corporation
Again an energy surge occurred in an uninhabited system and then vanished as quickly as it came. The Tempestas and the Avenging Talon now sat alone and invisible in the system deep in Highline Corporation space. They were several jumps from the Highline home system of Saint John, named for the home world of the corporation. The Tempestas sent a message pod requesting a diplomatic meeting with the Highline CEO, Andrea DiSanto. The message identified the senders as diplomats of the Petrov Corporation. Again Alaya, Tavia and Hatch took the Unicorn and went to the Saint John system. When they arrived, they sent a message to the home world identifying them. After several hours of lag time, there came a return message.
“Alaya, there is a return message coming in,” Tavia reported.
“Put it up on the speakers,” Alaya responded.
Tavia piped it through the bridge speakers. Following the identification heading the message came through as follows, “Planetary traffic control to the private yacht Unicorn, you are cleared to land at beacon location 2823. Set your homing tracker to frequency 213 Gigahertz and follow that beacon to the landing area. Do not deviate from the permitted frequency. You will be met when you land and taken to the office of the Vice President of Inter-Corporate Affairs.” This was followed by the mechanical computer voice from the header stating that the message was now terminated.
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