Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals

by Dale Musser

  Sokaia lay there a second with a shocked look on her face as she stared up at Kala. Suddenly, everyone in the gym was cheering. Kala stood and offered her hand to Sokaia and helped her to her feet.

  “That was amazing, First Citizen Kalana,” Sokaia said. “I thought for sure I had you there, as you seemed to relax for a second. What did you do?”

  “I did just what you said, I relaxed. I realized that I was concentrating too hard on my moves instead of letting my instincts work as Tibby taught me. Once I relaxed, everything went into a natural flow and I simply allowed my body to react instinctively.”

  “That was incredible, Kalana; I hope we can spar again before I have to leave the ship.”

  “I think I can find the time. It’s nice having someone other than Tib to spar with.”

  I think what impressed me the most was that Sokaia actually looked like she was happy to have been beaten. It was obvious that she liked being pushed to the max, and Kala had taken everything Sokaia could dish out and had beaten her.

  As Kala and I headed back to our suite, she said to me, “I thought for a minute she was actually going to beat me. We seemed to be equally matched, and I was starting to get tired. Then I remembered what you said about being relaxed and letting the body react on instinct instead of trying to think about it. As soon as I did, it was as if my body just took over and I was observing myself in action. Before I knew it, she was on the floor and I was in the kill position. I understand now why all this training is necessary, even when you know all the moves.”

  “You were great, Kala. I was very impressed. I was also fascinated to see how Sokaia has developed her skills. I think if she were to spar with Marranalis right now, she might beat him.”

  “You really think so? That would really deflate his libido. As it is now he’s afraid to invite her to the employee lounge for a drink and dancing.” We both chuckled at Kala’s comment as we headed to the shower.

  We spent the night in orbit around Nibaria as the Mirage Fighters were brought aboard and placed in the hangar in their proper positions. A’Lappe had crews ready to install cloaking systems and fusion power cells as each ship was docked. By the time the last fighter was brought aboard, two thirds of the fighters were fully equipped with permanent power and cloaking devices.

  Senator Tonclin had left the night before, but asked that we hold until midday before departing. I was not sure why, but I saw no reason we couldn’t wait that long. Shortly before noon, a shuttle arrived from the planet and five Nibarians boarded. One of them approached Wabussie. They spoke a few minutes before Wabussie called one of my crew over. He led them off into a processing room, where everyone who boarded the ship was screened for loyalty using the electronic testing program and provided with ID badges and appropriate clearances for various areas of the ship. As the shuttle lifted off and moved out of the hangar bay, I approached Wabussie. “Who are they?”

  “The senator didn’t mention them to you?”

  “No!”

  “They are more recruits for the FSO. The senator spoke with me after dinner last night and said he was impressed with the way the FSO is working so far, and suggested upping the number of Nibarians agents. He had already compiled a list of candidates.”

  “Excellent,” I said. “The Nibarians that we have in the FSO now — just how are they doing, anyway?”

  “They’re actually doing very well. As we suspected, most people tend to ignore them, assuming they could not possibly be any threat. Consequently, they manage to overhear a great deal of valuable information.”

  “I just realized something – we’re heading straight to Gaimse, but we were supposed to drop Lieutenant Commander Sokaia off at Plosaxen. We won’t be going anywhere close to Plosaxen now. I suppose I can lend her a Mirage Fighter or a patrol ship to take her there.”

  “That won’t be a problem, Tibby,” replied Wabussie. “When I spoke with the admiral, he said he believed she might learn more by accompanying you. He said after you have accomplished your goals at Gaimse, she could head back to Plosaxen.”

  I chuckled to myself as I wondered how Marranalis would react when he learned that Sokaia would be with us for a few weeks.

  Something had been bothering me since we discovered that anything fired away from the ship through the active RMFF experienced an exponential amplification of its force or acceleration. I couldn’t understand why this same principle didn’t seem to apply to the propulsion system. It seemed to me that, if the force of a laser fired from the ship increased its energy as it passed through the field, the propulsion forces of the ship should also be amplified. I decided head to the lab to talk to A’Lappe and Cantolla about it. When I arrived, I found them both bent over a countertop looking intently through goggles as bright flashes of light emanated from electrical arcs, casting their shadows on the surrounding walls.

  “I hope I’m not interrupting anything serious,” I exclaimed.

  “No, no, not at all. We’ve been trying to see if there is a way to penetrate the RMFF shield using various frequencies of energy,” Cantolla said. “So far, nothing breaks through it.”

  “It just happens that the RMFF is what I wanted to talk to you about. Why is it that the ship’s propulsion is not amplified like other things are when they pass through the field?”

  “I can answer that,” A’Lappe began as he removed his goggles and laid them on the table. “The ship is not propelled by a pushing action, like a rocket; rather, it’s pulled by a gravity wave that is generated in front of the ship.”

  “OK, you kind of lost me, there. Isn’t gravity a function of mass? If so, where is the mass that creates the gravity?”

  “Everything that has mass has a gravity field,” said A’Lappe, “but mass is a function of energy. All mass is, in reality, energy which exists in a tight, organized form and which behaves in strict accordance with certain physical laws. But it’s still only energy. The gravity wave is generated without creating mass.”

  “Uhh, OK. I’ll take your word for that. I was sort of hoping you were going to tell me it would amplify the gravity wave and thus increase the speed of the ship, but I guess not everything works the way I would like it to. But that does bring me to a second matter. When I was pondering the amplifying effect of the RMFF, I started to wonder — instead of creating a new generator to power an RMFF field for the Mirage Fighters, can’t you simply amplify the existing power system by using a transformer or something? In essence you would be boosting the power of a standard source to have enough energy to operate the RMFF?”

  Both A’Lappe and Cantolla looked at me for a moment, and then turned to stare at each other. “I don’t know, to be honest, Tibby,” A’Lappe began slowly. “I guess we have been so used to having a lot of generated power to play with that amplification has never been explored. It may be possible.”

  “If we loop the signal, it’s possible that we may be able to amplify it. Or maybe use a prism effect to focus the same signal into a common beam?” Cantolla said excitedly. Then, suddenly, the two of them were both talking to each other so rapidly in techno-babble that I had no idea what they were saying. I realized that they had forgotten I was even there, so I decided to leave them to continue with their ideas. I slowly backed out of the room.

  Over the next few days Kala worked out with Sokaia in the gym. While their sessions were intense, Kala seemed to beat Sokaia each time with relative ease. But at the same time, I could see that Sokaia was pushing Kala hard. After each session, the two of them talked and Kala would offer pointers to Sokaia. The two seemed to be hitting it off and becoming good friends — quite a departure from their first encounter, when Kala found it necessary to reprimand Sokaia.

  I sparred with Marranalis while the ladies sparred; it soon became apparent that he was not up to his usual level of performance. He seemed to be over-thinking his moves and counter-moves instead of relying on instinct, like I had trained him — and I had a hunch why.

  On our fourth day out, I st
opped him in the middle of our exercise and said, “Marranalis, I think you need a change. I think it would be a good idea for you and Sokaia to spar together.” I saw the concern flash over his face. I had put him in a position once before where he had to spar with Sokaia. That time, it was Sokaia who needed the lesson. This time, it was Marranalis who had something to learn and I had a feeling that Sokaia was going to be the one to do the teaching.

  I called to Sokaia, who was just about to begin sparring with Kala. “Lieutenant Commander Sokaia, would you mind sparring with Marranalis today? I think he is too accustomed to sparring with me and would benefit from a session with someone who is equally skilled, but who perhaps takes a different approach.”

  “Sure,” she responded with a smile. “I’ve been looking for the opportunity to get him on his back.”

  Kala raised a questioning eyebrow and walked over to me as Marranalis and Sokaia headed to the mat. “What’s this all about, Tib? What are you up to?”

  “Wait and see. I think this is going to be interesting.”

  Kala and I watched from the side as Marranalis and Sokaia went at it. At first it was a repeat of Kala and Sokaia’s first match a few days earlier, but then slowly, bit by bit, Sokaia became more relaxed in her movements while he became overly aggressive. Suddenly, Marranalis thought he saw an opening and lunged forward in an attack. As he did, Sokaia flowed to the side in a smooth motion and, like Kala had done with her just days before, shifted in a way that allowed her to use Marranalis’ own motion against him. Before he knew what had happened, he was on the floor with Sokaia overhead, poised to deliver a fatal blow.

  Sokaia laughed with glee as she hopped up and extended her hand to help him to his feet. He had the same wounded look on his face that he had the first time I sparred against him in the demonstration for Captain Maxette on the DUSTEN. Sokaia kissed him on the cheek and ran off in a gleeful leap as Marranalis shuffled over to where Kala and I stood.

  “I don’t know what happened, Tibby; I was sure that I had the upper hand and next thing I knew, she had me. What went wrong?”

  “Kala, why don’t you tell him?”

  Kala looked at me and then turned to Marranalis. “You were concentrating too much on your movements and not relaxing and allowing your natural reflexes and instincts to fight for you. When you concentrate in that way, you actually dampen your responses. You and Sokaia are pretty evenly matched, but she was able to relax and trust in her skilled reflexes, and you didn’t. The end result was you got your ass kicked!”

  “Hmm, you’re right. I realize that now. Is that why you wanted me to spar with Sokaia?” he asked me.

  “Yes. Since she began practicing here with our team, you’ve been trying to impress her with your skills, and have not been fighting to win but to impress, which is always dangerous, and if you’re fighting someone with skills equal or greater than yourself, it can be fatal. Now, if we can convince Sokaia to come back, I would like to see the two of you spar again.”

  Moments later, they squared off again. This time, however, the bout only lasted a short time before Marranalis defeated Sokaia. The two squared off for a third time and, again, Marranalis beat her quickly. As he was helping her to her feet, she said, “I guess I just got lucky the first time, but it was great getting you on your back at least once,” She winked.

  Kala looked at me and I smirked. “You have more than just one goal in mind with this exercise, don’t you, Tibby?” I just grinned. “Don’t go playing coy with me. I know you, Tib; what are you up to?”

  I just kept smiling and said, “Wait and see, my dear. Wait and see.”

  After showering, Kala and I lounged in our quarters before a fireplace while sipping a luxurious wine and feeding each other some small snack foods. I was mystified by the fireplace; it was a real fire — not a wood-burning fire, of course, but a gas flame or something else with artificial logs, just like my home on Earth. The mystery wasn’t really about the flames, rather, I couldn’t figure out where the heat and oxygen-depleted gases went. Obviously there was no chimney exhausting the gases into space; so where did they go?

  While she sipped her wine, Kala noticed me staring inquisitively at the fire. “Tib, what is it about that fireplace that intrigues you so much? Don’t you have fireplaces on Earth?”

  “Yes, we do, but if we burned one in an enclosed space, like this spaceship, it would burn all the oxygen out of the air and we would soon suffocate. Likewise, the heat would build up in the place and cook you like a Rudosian fowl. Yet, here we are, totally enclosed with a fire burning, and we are neither cooking nor suffocating.”

  Kala laughed. “Tib, there are scrubbers built into the ductwork that filter and re oxygenate the exhaust gases. The heat is sent to collectors and redistributed to places that might need it. If there is more than needed, it is sent to heat exchangers on the dark side of the ship’s hull, where the heat quickly dissipates into space. But that seldom happens, as there are plenty of applications and uses for the heat here on the ship, like heating the pools or the greenhouse hydroponic gardens.”

  “That’s a relief. I was afraid that sooner or later, we were going to run out of air. But what about the fueling gas? Do we re-supply it when we get to other planets, and where is it stored?” By now, Kala was laughing so hard I was afraid she was going to spill her wine.

  “What? What’s so funny?”

  “You! You are so funny! Here you are – the richest man in the universe – able to devise all sorts of brilliant military actions, able to save entire worlds – and you worry about asphyxiating due to lack of oxygen. You have no idea what goes on in your own ship, and yet you save the universe,” she said, still laughing.

  “Seriously, Kala, I really would like to know.”

  “You would be much better off asking A’Lappe, if you want all the scientific details, but I do know that the gas is generated right here on the ship. You know how the replicators work—by taking basic organic materials here on the ship and converting them back into food or other organic items. Well, one of the products produced in that process is methane. That methane is compressed and stored in tanks aboard the ship, and some is burned in the fireplaces. What doesn’t get used can be reclaimed and used by the replicator to produce new foods or clothing or other items.”

  “Wow. I never realized just how elaborate and sophisticated the replicators are.”

  We were interrupted by a call on my wrist com. “Tibby, this is Kerabac. We just received a message from the admiralty that the GW pod shipment of solbidyum to the planet Lasalt has gone missing. It is believed that the pod was intercepted before the intended representatives were able to get to the coordinates to pick it up. Commander Wabussie would like to meet with you in the bridge meeting room to discuss the details.”

  “Tell him I will be right there.” Turning to Kala I said, “We were expecting this, only we didn’t know where it was going to happen. Now we do. I wonder what plans the admiral will come up with to get it back.”

  When Kala and I arrived at the bridge conference room, Wabussie and Commodore Stonbersa were there waiting. As we exchanged greetings, Marranalis and Sokaia arrived. The commodore and Sokaia retrieved cups of foccee from the wall drink dispenser and then took seats at the table. When everyone had settled, Wabussie immediately launched into the meeting.

  “We knew this was coming. Unfortunately, we were unable to prevent it. But now the Federation needs to act. The admiralty got word a few hours ago that a solbidyum shipment sent to Lasalt was never received by the planet’s representatives. From the information we received, the representatives of Lasalt were on the way to retrieve the GW pod when they received a distress call from a freighter, stating they had a reactor problem and the ship was in danger of exploding. The freighter crew reported an injury and casualty count of about fifty crewmembers. They anticipated that the ship would blow up in a few hours and they had begun fleeing in life pods. Normally, the Lasalt ship assigned to the GW pod retrieval would hav
e requested another ship to provide rescue assistance, but there was no other ship near enough to respond in time. A decision was made to render assistance and initiate rescue operations – only when they arrived at the location of the distress call, there was no sign of the ship or any debris that would indicate an explosion. None of the calls they sent out during their search for the ship were met with a reply; and after searching for a full day, they headed back to the coordinates where the GW pod shipment should have been. When they arrived, there was nothing to be found. Someone had tricked them into the diversion so they could steal the shipment.”

  Wabussie pressed a button on a small remote control device and a panel in the wall slid up to reveal a vid screen. Moments later a star map appeared.

  “This is the star system for the planet Lasalt,” he said. A red circle appeared around a star on the screen. “These stars are the nearest Federation stars to Lasalt,” he continued, as a number of nearby stars lit up in a green color. “These stars…” he said, as a number of other stars lit up in magenta, ”…are solar systems that are the home to several non-aligned worlds, and this arch…” an arc appeared close to Lasalt, “…represents the fringe of the Federation territory.”

  It was easy to see that many of the stars in magenta were outside the arch, while the green ones were within it.

  “Fortunately, we were recently able to get a starship with a DSC system into this sector that can relay information to us as it happens. We fear the solbidyum has been taken to one of the worlds outside Federation’s territory. It could have been taken to anyone of these worlds,” he stated, indicating the magenta stars. “But most likely, it went to one of these.”

  White circles appeared around thirteen planets. “We think these are the most likely candidates, because these planets engage in a great deal of trade; ships are coming and going across this region in a steady flow of traffic. Right now, the starship ROSKON is headed to the area. They have three FSO agents aboard who will depart on small personal transports to investigate some of the more seedy planets in the area — planets known to be hangouts for pirates and smugglers — in the hope that they can obtain some leads as to who is responsible for the theft and where the solbidyum may be now. It may be months before we learn any information, if ever.