I shook my head. At the same time, I said, “It is impossible, there is no way I can obtain any. You will have to come up with an alternative.” I wanted to ask a question so I took the opportunity before they asked for anything further, “What has happened regarding those four remaining Silka?”
One of the other military officers replied, “They attempted to land on Earth. Two were shot down and two made it to the Amazon rainforest and escaped. We are still hunting them.”
Horrified that they were on Earth I said, “Well don’t be too long tracking them down and don’t take any chances when you find them, shoot to kill. Is there anything else you wish to discuss?”
The Prime Minister replied, “No, nothing further to discuss at this time, but would you be kind enough to take a diplomatic case and see that it reaches the ambassador for Earth, Erika?”
I answered positively, “Yes, of course, I will.” He passed the case to me.
He then said, “Thank you, I will contact you later before you leave Earth.”
We left and took a taxi back to the airport. Alenna was worried, she said to me, “Why did you not check the mainframe on the gunship? If the alliance council finds out about Earth now having access to how a star-drive works, they may decide to punish us, it will bring shame on our house and why did you lie about that mineral?”
Still worried I replied, “Deep down I am sure you know the reason why I lied at the meeting. I would have no trouble acquiring that mineral, as you well know. It would be best if they think it was not available. Without it, they will not be able to construct a star-drive advanced enough, probably in time only achieving the same advancement as the Silka currently have. If the alliance does find out, they may go easy on us knowing we would not supply Earth with that mineral.”
“I just hope you’re right,” murmured Alenna.
We arrived back at the port, I wondered if we would see Lord Gilbert or the curator collecting the sculpture. I wanted to move the sculpture from the waste recycling room where I had stored it. I would move it to the warehouse. I was going to use River to assist me. I knew where to find her. She was quite predictable and I found her in the same place as usual when on Earth, watching television. After a moan or two, she assisted me, just in time mind you, as we could see that very same van that collected the last sculpture approaching. I could also see the front passenger. It was Lord Gilbert himself. He stepped out of the van and put on a top hat before reaching for his cane. He strutted towards us as before.
“Good evening,” he said in his very posh superior voice. “You have another sculpture by the most talented Zitter Bobeck for me, Where is it?” He did not say, please!
I was not going to be so rude. I said, “Follow me please Lord Gilbert,” I again led him into the warehouse.
As before, he again strutted around it as if he was the foremost expert on art and also as before he dabbed his nose with a frilly handkerchief before putting up to his eye, his monocle.
He turned to me and said, “You have the details?” I passed him the note that I had made earlier. He glanced at it for a moment before stuffing it between pages in his notebook. “Thank you my good man” That was all he said, at least he did say thank you. He turned and strutted his way back to the van. The same two workmen as before exited from the back doors of the van.
The older of the two workmen greeted me, “Hi guvnor,” pointing at the sculpture he said, “This?”
I replied, “Yes thank you, you’re both working late this evening?”
He groaned and said, “No choice, we were told something important had come up and we were needed.”
I guessed it was my fault so I apologised, “Sorry chaps, it is my fault, and I didn’t know your employers would draft you in.”
“At least you are sorry,” he said, “Lord Gilbert would never stoop so low as to apologise to us.” At that point, he said, “Thanks, guvnor.” They picked up the sculpture, loaded it into the van and left. River and I closed the warehouse doors and returned to the cargo freighter, where River returned to watching TV.
During the evening I had that call from the Prime Minister, he said, “Could you please obtain eight hundred tonnes of zilton?”
I replied, “Yes, when do you want it?”
He said, “Sometime next month,” I looked at Alenna. She opened her log and after looking at it nodded to me.
“That will be possible, is there anything else you need?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, “Are you willing to sell that other shuttle, the one which you have in your warehouse?”
Talk about spying on what I do, I had noticed all those security cameras dotted around the area of the warehouses. They must be watching me. Big brother comes to mind.
“I am willing to sell the shuttle,” I replied, “Half a million pounds sterling.”
Fine, he said, “Can it be collected in the morning and how do wish to be paid?”
I replied, “Morning is ok. We now have a bank account on Earth. I will give you details, so you will be able to transfer the payment directly.” After giving him our bank account details he just said, “Hope to see you again next month.” At which point the communication was terminated.
The next day two pilots arrived. Both had been trained to fly a frigate. As the shuttle’s control layout is different compared with a frigate, I had to show them this difference. To make sure they did not mix up the important things, I labelled a number of the controls etc. as well. I watched as it lifted off and left the area. As soon as they had gone I returned to the cargo ship to prepare for our departure from Earth. We flew to orbit at which point I spotted the gunship. Seeing the gunship would not be considered anything out of the ordinary, but for one thing. It was towing the remains of the Silka ship and attempting to position it into the moon’s orbit. What would they want with that I thought? Could it be that they wish to use it as a trophy or be a warning to the other Silka ships when they arrive? No, I didn’t think so. I believed they wished to find out how it worked and would be sending specialists to board the remaining parts of the ship, to see if they could ascertain more knowledge about the Silka.
Chapter 4
Business as Usual
During our trip back to Alkarr, we did all the cleaning on the ship. It not only helped to pass the time, but it really was the best time to do so. That meant I only had to do the regular jobs when back on Alkarr, such as empty the waste tanks, top up the water tanks, remove the spent filters while Alenna arranged for fresh stores and provisions. The first thing I noticed when landing was that the ship belonging to Helena that had the regulator problem was not on its landing base. I could only conclude that Lidier and her team had done their work and fitted the two replacement pods. This was confirmed by Alenna after contacting her mother. The ship in question had left to go to Relnor, to have its other regulator replaced. Our old ship was on its base. I would visit it later. Alenna had taken command of the diplomatic case. It was locked. I can only guess that Erika had the combination to the lock. Alenna would be giving the case to Lara, who in turn would be delivering it in person to Erika in the city. On my return to our residence, I was eager to see if there was any more information about the reason for the lack of civilian craft. The most intriguing description I could find was from a competitor. His cargo ship had to fly near to the civilian ship construction yards, and these yards were spread over a wide area. Now, they were usually a hive of activity with crews in cranes lifting sections of hull into position and welding taking place everywhere. He reported it was a like a ghost town with nothing moving and no sign of life. That was odd; something was definitely up. I was still no wiser to the reason. I would again need to speak to Lara on the subject.
On Lara’s return that evening I a
sked her again, “Lara, why are there no civilian craft being constructed on Relnor?”
She looked at me then said, “As I told you before I don’t know, so stop asking.”
I was not content to let go, so I continued with, “Are military craft still being constructed?”
Lara replied, “Yes of course!”
I had tricked her into admitting she almost certainly knew something, so I said, “How come you know about the military craft and not the civilian, you do know something don’t you?”
Lara realising that I had cornered her, said, “Look, Jake, I really can’t tell you a thing. I am under strict orders not to say anything. But as you have already found out that construction has been halted, I will say only this. All civilian spacecraft construction has been deferred for the foreseeable future. There is a more pressing situation that needs to be taken care of. That is all I will say on this subject so you will be wasting your and my time trying to inquire any further. Just let it go Jake!” With that statement, she turned around and made a quick exit from the room.
I was left with even more questions than answers, what was more pressing, and there was that word again that left you no wiser to the reason, deferred. We would be going to Relnor again in a week’s time. I would try to shed some further light on the situation then. We were leaving tomorrow on our first ever trip to a mining colony on the planet Elderring, which was near the trillion frontier. We would be delivering food and provisions and strangely, water, we had never delivered water anywhere before. Why did they need water? We would be collecting two consignments of copper bars. One would be taken to the planet Dregg. Our drop off point there was within a restricted zone, so Alenna had a clearance code. After that, we continued on to Relnor to deliver our second consignment. Elderring was intriguing, I always wondered what we would find when visiting a planet for the first time. I couldn’t find very much information or details about the planet, it was as if it barely existed. The only information I could gather about the planet was that it is inhospitable, no other details were forthcoming. I asked about the planet on the forum. No other house that ran a cargo business, had reported going there. In fact, no one had ever heard of the planet. I did get a number of males saying, “Elderring, where’s that then? Never heard of Elderring.” Alenna had been given its coordinates. She was also informed that we would be challenged and had been told to give the passcode she had been issued with. So we started loading. We had several dozen large water containers holding around a thousand gallons each to load. They had the words ‘suitable for drinking’ on the sides. It was time to leave and very soon we were in star-drive. Having set the hologram room to Mazar, I spent a whole day doing an arduous hike along with River, Jenna and Emily for company. After two hours both Jenna and Emily had done enough walking and started moaning about their feet hurting. At that point, they decided to cut the hike short. What a shame as River and I came across a small rock pool fed by a waterfall and surrounding it was flowers of all colours. The aroma was breath-taking. We sat down and enjoyed its splendour. In the end, we never finished the hike. I would love to visit the real Mazar and see this spectacle in real life if only I could find out where it was recorded.
We had reached Elderring and were challenged. This challenge came from a battlecruiser. We were close to the frontier. I guess, perhaps it was there as a precautionary measure, in case the Silka showed up. It turned out to be there for two reasons. After landing it became clear why this planet was sort of secret. It had huge reserves of copper ore, almost everywhere you looked.
The alliance wanted to make sure no un-authorised mining could take place, which was the reason for the lack of information on the planet. As for the water delivery, this planet was inhospitable for at least one main reason; it has almost no water. Its temperature was tolerable but that was the only thing it has going for it. A very low magnetic field, offering the planet very limited protection from solar wind and radiation. An atmosphere half that of Earth, but unbreathable, over two-thirds of which was carbon dioxide the rest nitrogen, argon and finally oxygen at just two percent. Without any water present, the planet was devoid of life. The planet had a completely barren landscape. Wearing environmental suits was mandatory.
We signed in and soon met our contact, who said, “You should unload as quickly as possible. This part of the frontier is not a safe place to be. There have been many skirmishes with the Silka, which seem to be getting more frequent recently.”
Concerned, we did as we had been told, not dawdling, unloading the goods and water before loading the copper bars with haste! We even skipped a break, so we could finish our business on the planet as quickly as possible. We soon left the planet behind making our way now to the planet Dregg. This was the first time we had made a delivery in the controlled zone on Dregg. After giving our clearance code we proceeded to our destination. It was the Dregg spacecraft construction yards. We landed near a perimeter where the metal foundries were situated. I could see most of the construction yard before I landed, I was drawn to a particular section where construction was taking place of two large battlecruisers and adjacent to that area I could also see about half a dozen smaller craft under construction.
I turned to Alenna and said, “Do you know how long it takes to build just one battlecruiser?”
Alenna shrugged her shoulders before saying, “No, but I guess you are about to tell me.”
I replied, “Three to four years. If the Dregg have enough construction crews, they can build just two ships in that time.” I thought about Relnor. We had noticed three battlecruisers under construction that time we had to collect three frigates before delivering them to Lusiana. I continued with a guess, “And if Relnor can build three in that time, that’s five in three to four years. How many battlecruisers do the alliance possess at this time?” There was no way of knowing exactly, they hadn’t built any for a number of years, well not until the threat of the Silka had intensified. Again I guessed, “I reckon somewhere over twenty, but below thirty, including those being constructed now. Though they do have many more frigates.”
Alenna concerned said, “Is that all? There are over a hundred planets and moons occupied by the alliance that would need defending. How can they expect to defend all of them should the Silka decide to attack in force?”
I replied, “They can’t. The alliance wouldn’t even be able to provide every inhabited world with even just one frigate each let alone offer some protection with a battlecruiser. I guess they would fall back and protect the homeworlds of the alliance as a priority and a few of the more important colonies.”
Alenna now, even more, concerned asked, “Do you think the Silka will attack?”
I was a little hesitant before I answered her. But with a nod, I replied, “Without a doubt, they will. I believe they are waiting for the right moment. I also believe Earth will come under attract at the same time. I do hope I am so wrong on that.”
On to Relnor. Our delivery point was some way off to both the civilian and military construction yards, so I would not get a close view directly. I had an idea, I could do one orbit of the planet and use our long-range viewer. This would give me some idea of what is being constructed. Just before we arrived at Relnor I changed shifts with Lumi; she was now piloting. I asked her to make an orbit that passed over both yards. First the civilian yard. I could see no movement at all. As I was informed on the forum, it did look like a ghost town. Something was serious. They would not abandon civilian spacecraft construction without a good reason. It became clearer as we passed above the military construction yards, I could see five battlecruisers in various stages of construction. Now I knew where the construction engineers from the civilian port had gone. They had been all commandeered to build these battlecruisers. I was now very worried. The alliance was in trouble they didn’t have enough protection. What will it mean for Ea
rth? I must double my effort to find any military craft for Earth. I was even giving some thought of going against the alliance and providing Earth with that mineral to construct star-drives. Earth had the capacity to build many more battlecruisers than the alliance. It was a choice I did not wish to make, I was torn between honour and my instinct to help my fellow humans. I would have to make my mind up to which way I would go soon. The delivery of the copper bars was straightforward and at least we didn’t have to unload with any haste. When finished we returned to Alkarr. We noticed that the cargo ship belonging to the House of Motok with the problem regulator had returned. We would visit Helena’s house before we next left Alkarr. Alenna prepared for our next two regular cargo runs. First, we were going to Mazar and after that, we would proceed to Lusiana where I intended to pick up a consignment of zilton for Earth. From Lusiana we would take a direct path to Earth again. I had to do my usual trip to the moon. I was again disappointed, Lidier didn’t have a single thing of any use to sell to Earth. On my return to our residence, Alenna was waiting for me along with Jenna, Minty, Emily and River.
Alenna said, “You took your time, we expected you back sooner. Anyway we have been summoned to our birth house and we must rush or we will be late.” We left immediately.
On the way, I said to Alenna, “Not another marriage, who will it be this time?”
Jenna butted in with, “We don’t know why we have been requested to attend. It may or may not be a marriage, and it’s strange as River has also been requested to attend.”
I looked at River and said to her, “Do you have any idea what’s happening?”
River shook her head before saying, “No I have no idea at all, and I have had only limited contact with the House of Motok, I have only spoken to Helena on one single occasion when we dealt with the regulator on their ship. I am really perplexed as to why my attendance would be requested.”
The Alliance in Peril: The Chronicles of Jake -- Book 3 (The Chronicles of Jake Trilogy) Page 6