Narth surprised me as he said, “Narth Supreme considers the discoveries I made through my friendship and service the highest achievement we Narth attained in millennia. It fills me with personal pride if I am considered to have human qualities.”
Sobody sipped from a glass, and I nodded to Krabbel. “Go ahead, Narth thinks he is trustworthy!”
Krabbel shrieked and took an already melting ice cream cone from a platter close to him.
The Golden merchant laughed. “Yes, I heard of the addiction Archas have for ice cream. When I saw one to be part of your crew, I knew I had to have some here.”
I thanked him and said, “Please continue and come to the point why we are here. We’ve learned much but still nothing of the real reason, and I am in a bit of a hurry.”
He slowly shook his head, and he had a wide smile on his lips. “Forceful, a little impatient, easy to anger, full of pride, and never to be underestimated; Captain Smith, you are a refreshing example of the exact qualities I admire so much in these evolved primates of Terra. Please believe me when I say I love your species. There is none quite like it in the universe I have seen so far.”
He took another fruit, looked at it, then he said, “I want you to tell your superiors, we the Golden will join the Union and give you unlimited access to all our files and technology, allow you to set up research posts on all our bases, and reveal to you the secret of the ancient gates and how they can be used to travel to other galaxies. All this, we offer under one condition!”
I was quite shocked by his revelation but said, “High Merchant, I am only a starship captain. I cannot make decisions for my government and grant or negotiate any deals or conditions, but I gladly convey them!”
He seemed pleased as he said, “I am certain you can call your ship and have a connection made. Call that old man of yours, McElligott, and tell him I want to talk to him.”
Elfi made the connection, linking Tigershark’s Comm. System with my wrist PDD.
The admiral’s holo-image appeared immediately, as if he had waited right by his terminal for this call. Before I could even brief him, he snapped, “How did it go? What happened? What did he want?”
Sobody walked over and placed himself inside the visual pickup sensor of my PDD and said, “I am right here, Admiral. We are still in my sanctum, and I asked your young captain to make this connection.”
I extended the wide-angle receiver so McElligott could see all we did and projected a field screen so Sobody could see the admiral better. McElligott slightly bowed to the old merchant. “Your Eminence, it is an honor to talk to you in person. I hope my young captain has represented the Union well.”
The merchant said, “She has indeed, sir. Let me come to the reason for this call, and I will offer you a proposal.”
The Golden repeated the offer.
McElligott wiped his mouth in an involuntary gesture. “What would that condition be?”
“I want to join this young crew and go on whatever mission they are on. I won’t ask for any privileges or to be treated like any other crewmember, but I want to be there. I’ve lived a very long time, and I feel old despite my body’s eternal youth. I want to soak and sponge up some of that vitality and energy, to be on a Union ship and on real missions. My Council of Elders is fully instructed and ready to travel to Pluribus and do what is necessary to integrate the Golden into the Union. We will accept Union law, participate with funds and recruits to your fleet. Give you unlimited access to all our files on alien species and technology. Our intelligence service has much to share as well. It will be good business in the long run, too, as I am certain.”
The admiral said, “A battlegroup is already on its way and will arrive soon. I will order the USS Baghdad to take you aboard as a passenger for a grand tour of Union Space. It is one of our newest dreadnoughts.”
Sobody’s voice became stronger. “No, Admiral. I was not talking about being a safeguarded VIP guest and being flown along safe space lines for a few weeks. I am offering you a great opportunity, and I think you understood what I have asked. I want to go with the crew of the USS Enigma and on whatever mission they have. Don’t take me for a fool or lightly. Don’t change their mission to suit me. My side of the deal is of tremendous benefit to the Union. My request should be little compared to that.”
McElligott wrung his hands as he said, “Sir, this crew is on a long and dangerous mission. I could not possibly guarantee your safety.”
Sobody sounded pleased. “Now we understand each other, and that is exactly what I want. I don’t want my safety guaranteed. The deal will be complete and unchangeable regardless if I get injured or die in the course of that mission. Ask your Narth. I have no hidden agenda, no alternate motives. It is simply the dream of an old and very rich man, to once more do something meaningful, something daring and perhaps dangerous. I want to share a cabin with another crewmate, scramble at alarm, die in the heat of battle or perhaps simply out of excitement. Again, I am not asking for any special treatment, in fact, I do not want any. I might not be a trained officer from your academies, but I have been traveling this universe longer than you and that Iron hero Stahl together and that should count for something. Besides, I am giving you a choice. You do not have to agree. But then as long as I live, the Golden shall remain as they were.”
“Why now? It seems almost as if you have planned this.”
Sobody shook his head vehemently. “No, Admiral. I did not plan for those little humans to attack us. Even we had no idea of their existence until they attacked. Our own battle fleet was too far out to arrive in time, but as I told your captain, I am a fan of the Union, so to speak, and I have been playing with this idea ever since I watched you grow as a civilization. I made definite preparations ever since the Narth have eased their Isolation and came to the conclusion my people need to do the same. It was chance that brought this captain and her crew here, but I would have asked for this eventually.”
McElligott said, “I, too, must follow orders, and I will call you back within the hour. I must discuss this with others. Mr. Narth, are you convinced he speaks the truth?”
Narth answered, “Yes, sir, his mind is open, and it is indeed his wish.”
It didn’t take him an hour to call back. The President of the Union himself, as well as the Vice President, were also present, and it was something else to see these VIPs beamed as holos from my wrist com. The President welcomed the old merchant and the golden ones into the Union and invited the delegation to come to Pluribus to make it official. Sobody called in a group of old-looking Goldens, who confirmed it all and also signed a contract to the effect that whatever would happen to the old merchant while aboard my ship would not affect the new relations in any shape or form.
It was agreed to send for a mobile extended-reach GalNet terminal, and I had it brought up from my ship to ease further communication.
The Delegation of Elders would leave as soon as the Baghdad arrived.
After the President and VP were disconnected, McElligott spoke directly to me, “We had no other choice, really, and I did give him my word not to alter your mission, and so you are stuck with that merchant. I wish I could see another solution. However, he is to be aboard your ship as a specialist without special duty. You are the captain, and the ship comes first, but if you can, try to bring him back alive. Wait for the battlegroup to arrive. I am sending additional units to secure that rock and help with the damaged civilians.”
I said with a sigh, “Just lovely, sir. Bring him back alive. Yes, sir.”
McElligott shrugged, rolled his eyes, and disconnected.
I looked at the Golden and said, “You are serious, right?”
He nodded. “I just ordered my entire civilization to basically abandon our way of life, and you ask me if I am serious?”
“Yes, sir, because I find your offer is so far out of proportion to your single request. I am sure the Assembly would have granted you your own ship, even built you one, and given you a crew of Terra
ns.”
He still smiled and said, “You are very sharp and very intuitive indeed. To be honest, not that I wasn’t before, but my Circle of Elders and I prepared this step for quite a while. We would have asked for membership anyway, within the next month. Your Union is growing, and it is not doing so by conquering others. I’ve seen other empires and I’ve studied them all; not even the most totalitarian society manages to keep such a high satisfaction and level of content among its citizens. I am not talking about the Klack or the X101 or any single-species society, but about empires and cultures that incorporate many different ones.”
He made a gesture around him. “You noticed my chamberlain encrusted in age-old forms and outdated views of the universe. I am not exalted just because I am rich and in charge of my people. I am not wiser than others just because I was born under the shining diamond or because my father ruled before me. But changing these things is not easy and takes time. Being members of the Union will give the seventy-five billion Goldens not only a stable market to deal and prosper, but it gives each Golden the very chance I am taking now of maybe becoming something other than a merchant. Maybe a doctor, an engineer, or maybe one of my subjects wants to reject it all and join the GalDrifts. He or she now has this choice.”
He spread his short arms. “Well, soon they will. As I said, changes take time, but a society not willing to change and advance is a society that is doomed. But I wouldn’t be the ruler of a society of merchants and dealers if I couldn’t use this to fulfill a dream of mine. What is so bad about this?”
Somehow, I couldn’t really be mad at the Golden anymore. Narth told me that he was genuine or at least told the truth, and I sensed Narth still trusting his words. What he said made sense, and while it was a little beyond my expertise, I could not find anything to object to his reasoning. If he wanted his own people to be free and if he wanted to be judged on his own merits rather than on titles and positions, then he hit the right buttons with me.
I said to him, “Because you are a VIP, the leader of a society, and I am new to this captain business, and I am on a very unusual mission with very unusual parameters. Having someone along who hasn’t finished the Academy, who should not be put in harm’s way is not exactly something I am looking forward to. Maybe your wish is genuine, but as the leader you claim to be, you see my dilemma, I am certain.”
“Captain Smith. I do understand that I basically blackmailed myself into your crew and under your command, but I assure you I am under your command. While I have not completed that marvelous and quite legendary Union Academy training, I have been traveling this universe for a very long time and have some experience in all matters of space travel. I don’t claim to know it all, and I don’t know much about the details of being a crew member on a Union ship. I do claim to be a willing learner and want to prove to you that I am really serious about all this. I hereby ask you, without any conditions, to accept me into your crew. If you say no, I travel with the old ones to Pluribus and do what I promised to do and step down as the First Merchant afterward. If you say yes, I give you my word I will do whatever you ask me to do, follow your orders, and not want any special treatment.”
I looked to Har-Hi, and he nodded. Elfi and Shea also declined their heads, and Narth said in my mind, “He has the capacity of deceit and is, because of his race and occupation, a master in manipulation. However, at the moment, he is truthful as a being can be. He really means what he says.”
I got up and said, “By the powers invested in me, I hereby conscript you, Sobody of the Golden, to the services of the United Stars Navy and as a crew member of my ship.”
For an old man, as he claimed to be, he jumped to his feet and saluted actually quite properly. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, Captain. I accept your conscription.”
I sighed and put my hand on the little man’s shoulder. “Let us go to the ship, so we can fill you in on what we are doing. Maybe you’ll regret your decision after all.”
Sobody followed us back to the ship. When he saw the Y’All behind the airlock, holding four TKUs, he shrunk back for a moment in something like fear and then whistled. “A Narth and a real live Y’All together aboard a Union ship. If those are the wonders I am allowed to see just at the entrance to this ship, I can’t wait to see what wonders are hidden deeper inside.”
I frowned and looked at him. “A genuine Golden Merchant for one. The big boss of the whole outfit no less!”
He stepped into my way. “Captain, I know you don’t like this situation, and maybe you don’t like me, but I assure you I will follow your orders, and I promise no chore is beneath me. If you want environmental tanks scrubbed, I will do so with a cheer on my lips!”
Har-Hi thumbed at me. “The captain and I have our experience with that particular chore, and if you do that with a happy cheer on your lips, you are weirder than I thought!”
The little Golden man shrugged. “Our sense of smell is not very well developed. We usually only smell good business, but my secret dream is coming true, and I will do it if you want me to!”
I said to him, “No need, Golden Merchant, this is a brand-new ship. But maybe you should write a list of skills you have, so maybe we can find something for you to do.”
Inside the ship, he whistled again. “This sure does not look like an old Phobos Class Destroyer on the inside.”
Cirruit, who came around the corner, said, “You sure know your ship interiors.” I knew Cirruit came just to quell his curiosity.
The merchant nodded. “I do. I studied anything I could get my hands on regarding the Union and its equipment.”
Cirruit looked at me and said, “How long are we going to be here?”
I answered him, “We have to remain until the battlegroup arrives. That should be about two to three days.”
Narth corrected me, “The battlegroup and the USS Baghdad will be here in seventy-four hours.”
I turned my hands out in a gesture of resignation. “I stand corrected then; our spooky OPS officer gave you the correct answer.”
Narth said, “That is what spooky and non-spooky OPS officers do, my upper-chest-enhanced, Captain.”
I almost choked on my own breath. “Maybe it is my own fault, giving you nicknames. I guess I better stick to proper names and titles.”
Har-Hi barely managed to contain his laughter and earned a stern look from me.
Cirruit said, “Can you grant me shore leave? I’ll be careful, I promise, but I always wanted to go shopping at a Golden Bazaar!”
With a smile on my face, I said, “You have twelve hours shore leave; denying you the chance to shop here would be cruel and unusual punishment.”
Only now did I notice Cirruit had not come alone. A Holdian with a pointed nose, round ears, and long whiskers stood next to the X101. He was wearing a blue coverall; his coverall and the exposed silky soft fur were soiled with heavy stains. The little Holdian turned a ghastly-looking rag in his little paws and then tipped his head and said, “Captain, ma’am, I am Specialist Estree Warner. Were you serious that anyone could come to you with ideas and such?”
I nodded. “Yes, I was.”
He exposed his yellow rodent teeth even further and said, “Captain, there is this idea I really wanted to tell you about.”
“I have a moment to listen to your idea, but first tell me what are you actually doing? I thought we were well past the oil and steam propulsion age and this is a new ship.”
He looked down at himself, dropped his ears and whiskers at the same time, and his eyes got a shimmering moist quality as if I had scolded him. I wanted to kick myself for making such a cute little Holdian so sad and wondered if they looked like this at a Union judge if they could get away with murder. I was certain they could.
The Holdian said, “Captain, I apologize! I completely forgot that I was still dirty. You see, I was greasing the injector spear blades and the push shafts of the upper chandelier diverter when Cirruit told me we had a Golden aboard, so I went along to look. I forgot I w
as still full of NeutroD4 grease.”
Shea helped him out, “Crewmember Warner is a Holdian, and due to his agility and size, he can perform maintenance work in confined spaces without dismantling the unit. Cirruit has written a report about it.”
I nodded. “I am aware of Holdians and had the honor of meeting a very special one only recently. I am not faulting him for working, getting dirty doing it, or for being nosy. I simply wanted to know what kind of work required grease on a Starship that supposedly reaches Tech Level 9!”
Har-Hi glanced at me from the side. “Have you forgotten our own experience with silicone grease on the Devi gun deck?”
Before I could agree, Cirruit explained, “In order to control the indirect bleeding and thus influx of transdimensional energies that would destroy the controlled flow, a so-called chandelier diverter is pushed through a tube, which at its end sticks into another dimension, so to speak. A special grease paste is applied to the injector push-rod below the blades as it turns out. It is the only way to keep those spear blades moving while they are in the other dimension. Captain, we are the only ship in the fleet with this new type of drive and it is still very much in its development phase. We are basically writing the maintenance procedures, as there is very little documentation we can rely on. My little Holdian specialist knows this drive inside and out. He was there when they built ours, and he can get inside without us pulling a service one on them.”
I had all but forgotten the old merchant until the old man gasped, “Silver be tarnished! You Terrans actually cracked the TD energy transfer secret! There are only a handful species in twenty-five galaxies who ever did, as far as I know. Come to think of it, the Ilwathi of the Leo II Galaxy use special grease for a very similar purpose. I think we even have a dozen barrels of it here and, if I remember correctly, a case of Ilwathi spare parts, too.”
Shea became very interested. “I would not mind purchasing it from you, so we can analyze it.”
The Golden said, “I am a member of this crew now; the stores of the Golden are open to you. I will forward your request and have it delivered imminently.”
Eric Olafson: Space Pirate Page 35