Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  His mind reached out and tried to move the piece and place it back, it was heavy, very heavy. More than he could move with his mind, that small piece must weigh several hundred tons. He was exhausted and leaned against one of the talon-shaped monoliths. There was a faint click and hidden alcoves opened all around the chamber walls. Each alcove was about one meter deep, perhaps two wide and no more than a meter high. Each alcove held a glass-like sphere, but the one right in front of him held a 20cm disc shimmering like a soap bubble.

  He had found it!

  He held his breath and took the Disc. It was feather-light and thin as a hair but it felt as though not even a Petharian could break it.

  What now? He had the Disc and expected some sort of instructions, but there was nothing, but as he stared on the Disc it changed and he held an image of the Milky Way galaxy. And as he stared, the view magnified to what he knew was the Cygnus Arm in the downward center and there, a little star began to blink. There was the Cave of Things!

  How was he supposed to reach a planet 90,000 light years away?

  He sighed. He would find a way, but he needed to equip an expedition and make a trip of over a year.

  Larthop almost jumped out of his skin as a blonde woman in a black leather-like catsuit suddenly stood nearby and said, "Maybe I can help you to get there faster, Mr. Larthop. I am Cherubim."

  ***

  Elfi did not fall, Krabbel caught her.

  "Wetmouth, check her out! Hans, raise the alarm," I yelled. Har-Hi and I were almost at the same time next to the door leading into our small hygiene facility. Lacking any other weapon, I pulled my .45 and Har-Hi produced a long knife.

  Wetmouth said,"She was stung by something. Cirruit I need your nanites …"

  Hans was speaking to the Computronic, reporting a medical emergency and potential intruder alert.

  Har-Hi saw it first and pointed it out to me with a stare and a raised eyebrow. It was something small and almost transparent that retreated into the drain. Har-Hi dashed past me and stabbed his long thin blade down the drain and with a flick of his wrist splatted a thin, underarm-long, slithering thing of a watery jelly-like consistency against the wall. It was a slug or snake-like creature with an almost completely transparent gelatin-like body and small visible organs inside.

  Seeing Har-Hi dealing with the creature I went back to the dorm to look after Elfi, only to see Medics had arrived and were taking Elfi away. Wetmouth nodded. "She's going to make it!"

  Marines arrived as well and Har-Hi came out of the bathroom with a laundry bag. It was moving.

  Lt. Merkus was there a heartbeat later and he ordered everyone to be quiet and then me to give a report. After I finished, Har-Hi handed him the bag. "We found this in the drain, Sir. I think it is a bonglee!"

  Merkus gasped. "How could that be? The pipes are minibot-inspected and lead to the breakdown recyclers. There hasn't been a bonglee incident in decades."

  I actually snapped at him. "The same way Spindlar commit suicide."

  Shaka pointed at the bathroom. "You are telling us that this has happened before, Sir? Taking a shower aboard the Devi is not safe? What are those things?"

  Merkus said. "I know you are all upset, especially since one of your comrades got hurt, and I will overlook what has been said, but from now on you all will act like Midshipmen and we will get to the bottom of this."

  Through the open door I saw Clusen behind him among other Midshipmen, including Suppor, and I said, "Yes Sir, we will act like Midshipmen and if we find that someone had a hand in this, I will challenge this person to a duel and make sure this someone will never again harm anyone."

  I said that looking past Merkus and straight at Clusen.

  Before he or anyone else could respond, someone out in the Corridor yelled, "Attention, Captain on deck!"

  Everyone stood in attention as Captain Harris arrived, his usually meticulously combed silver hair in a state of disarray. Most likely he had slept. In this almost chaotic situation, his sudden appearance had a calming effect on everyone. He was the Captain of the biggest ship in the fleet and yet he came down personally and my already high opinion of him raised another notch.

  Right behind him, running, came the ship's Chief of Security and he stopped only a few steps behind the Captain, who looked slowly around and then at the bag one of the Marines was holding.

  It was dead quiet and then he said to the Chief, "I want every man, every robot and every nanite we’ve got and have every inch of piping and conduit examined. You personally assured me that all the bonglee had been found and terminated."

  "Of course, Sir. It will be done right away, but let me state, Sir, and on my honor. This bonglee must have come from somewhere else. The incident with the Shaiman dissident was over eight years ago. We scanned and inspected everything and have been to space dock for a level one inspection twice and that includes a complete decontamination, Sir. Besides, bonglee do not live that long!"

  The Captain nodded and looked at us. "I also do not believe lightning strikes twice, I want to know why a promising and good Midshipman commits suicide and I want to know how a bonglee ends up stinging another."

  When Elfi came back the next day there was a lot of hugging and not many dry eyes as she assured us she was fine. We all were certain it was not an accident but a deliberate attempt to kill one of us. Elfi even knew the motive. "The Captain will select two Midshipmen of each of the three best teams and they are to accompany the Captain’s party and go to the Diamond Ball. It is the most prestigious and most formal event in the entire galaxy."

  Wetty snapped her fingers. "Ever since Merkus became our head instructor the scoring has been fair. The Devastator Knights were in the fourth place since yesterday, but now that the Yellow Team is incomplete they are again in third spot. If one of us were to be out, they would compete with the Blue Team for the first spot."

  I sat at our small table and said, "I know Clusen and Suppor are mad as hell ever since we took first place, but why would they risk all this to participate at some Ball? With the Yellow Team out of the way they could have waited to take one of us out later and not make it so obvious."

  Elfi said, "Because I think it has to do with Clusen and Suppor being of noble houses in their home worlds. They are of families that lost much influence and prestige, it would be an enormous boost to their causes if they could rub shoulders with the influential and mighty houses and be seen doing it."

  Cirruit, coming out of the bathroom said, "I installed a few things to assure nothing will ever come through sinks or vents again." Then he put down his small toolbox and said, "I don't understand this noble business. No offense, Princess, but what influence do they have on the Union?"

  Elfi, who had been hugged by Krabbel, untangled herself from his legs completely and said, "No offence taken, Chrome dome!" Then she sat down as well. "The Union allows for all kinds of governments. Terrans are a republic; the Blue are ruled by a tribune. The Ult have completely done away with a government and use Union law and see the Assembly as their government. The Klack are ruled by a strict monarchy. The Pan Saran still have an Emperor, who is elected by their Senate, but once in power he has dictatorial authority. We, the Saran Empire, have been ruled by queens for over 12,000 years and relatively few dynasties. My own dynasty or family ruled uninterrupted for 1,600 years, there are other member planets and smaller empires with kings, queens, emperors and nobles." She smiled and made an excusing gesture. "Nobles are a peculiar bunch, folks so arrogant that they make the Kermac look like amateurs, men and women more concerned about the line or the dynasty than their own lives or the lives of their children. Rigid rules of dusty traditions that make Eric's Book of Traditions seem advanced and modern!" She sighed. "It is also a mindset and a way of looking at the universe. It was poured and pounded into me ever since I was born and this is the reason …" she interrupted herself, "… anyway, all the nobles of the Union held a council long ago, just to decide who was the most noble and make this a strict o
rder. It was decided that the Klack Queen is the most royal and most noble of them all, followed by my mother and so forth and the Council of Nobles has a voice in the Assembly and when it comes to things nobles find important, they usually vote together. In the greater scheme of all things Union nobility means little, but within the member societies, it is a different story."

  Har-Hi, who was polishing one of his knives with a piece of silk, sighed. "Sounds a lot like Dai clans."

  Wetmouth, who sat on her bed with her legs tucked underneath her and an old-fashioned paper book on her lap, said, "The concept of monarchy as a form of state is very old and, to many, less complicated than democracy and such. There was a study done by the University of Bristol and they found that almost all citizens living under such monarchies are very content and have an unusually high affinity to their respective rulers."

  Krabbel scratched his belly with one of his legs. "Makes me wonder why the Union has never decided to pick a king or an emperor then."

  "It's in the original constitution," Elfi answered, looking at our eight-legged friend, "we all learned that in Union school, but there have been attempts by some political parties to change that, they never got past the five percent hurdle of Union votes to even get it on a discussion docket. The Union works fine exactly as it is."

  "Damn! There go my plans of becoming the first eight-legged King of the Galaxy!" Krabbel sighed in a theatrical fashion.

  Shaka, who was always the quietest among us, laughed. "And your first decree would be ice-cream for the king only and everyone else gets nuflug flies."

  "If I ever become King of the Galaxy, you'll be my First Minister, you know!"

  We all laughed and Elfi said, "Well to conclude this subject, for Clusen and Suppor it could be important enough to kill to secure a place."

  I said, "We’d better warn the Blue Team as well, I just wonder what is taking this investigation so long. The Security Chief of the Devi must be one of the best or he would not be in that position."

  Wetmouth looked up from her book. "Clusen is aboard and he is most certainly not the best officer. This is a big ship with lots of personnel. It would not surprise me to find a secret society or two aboard and perhaps even some associated with the Worm."

  That was something I did not want to believe. Not on the Devi! Not directly under the Old Man, but I knew Wetmouth could be right. I had met two less-than-perfect officers right at the start when I came aboard.

  Hans said, "There are 74,000 people counting the Marines aboard this ship. You could give everyone spacious super-luxury quarters complete with pool, on just one deck and you would hardly run into anyone. The ship could hold millions, there are ghost decks completely empty, only patrolled by a few robots and there are, of course, the mysterious X decks without any known IST or drop shaft connection. The possibility that the slime thing in the drain really was a coincidence is not very likely but not impossible. Eric, this ship holds about as many mysteries and secrets as the space we fly through!"

  What my friends said made sense and sounded true. Still, I wanted to believe that Captain Harris and Stahl knew all the secrets and the Devi was a shining beacon of all that was awesome about the Fleet. I also knew that what I wanted to believe was most certainly not the reality of things.

  I slapped my flat hand on the table. "Mystery decks or not, I still have no doubt the suicide and the bonglee attack are connected and we need to be very alert."

  "Can someone tell me what a bonglee actually is?" asked Shaka.

  Everyone automatically looked to Wetty and she explained. "No one knows for sure where bonglee originated, but almost all spacefaring societies know about them. They are silicone copper-based slug and fungi symbiotic lifeforms able to live and thrive in nearly any environment with a temperature above 10 degrees. Bonglee sustain life by digesting light alloys such as aluminum copper and the like. They have no gender and reproduce by separating an active cell sac every eight to 12 months. The more food or digestible materials they have, the more often they reproduce.

  "If nourishment becomes scarce they turn cannibalistic and attack anything that moves, including and especially their own kind, their poison is lethal to 76% of all known lifeforms. Bonglee are one of many lifeforms of the spaceship vermin category, virtually unknown aboard Union ships due to strict decontamination procedures, but widespread on less well-maintained privately owned ships. Bonglee can be legally traded by anyone holding a XLT-4 license."

  "Who would want to buy something like that?" Shaka shuddered.

  "They are often held as pets by Shaill and considered a delicacy by 17 known species, of which seven are Union members."

  Har-Hi leaned forward. "Modern Union ships have no hiding places for vermin and are scanned and decontaminated anyway on a regular basis, but the Devi, or for example big old Dai Mothers have many nooks, crawl spaces and places no one has looked at for decades."

  I leaned back, shaking my head. "Here I am, thinking I had become a decent spacer, and no longer wet behind my ears and it turns out I am still a dirtside space Noob knowing next to nothing!"

  They laughed and I did too, but not as much. I realized that even now, well into the third year, I was not reaching the end of my education, but had barely begun.

  INTERLUDE: PLURIBUS

  Pluribus was even more crowded and busy during Union Week than usual. Egill had returned from Nilfeheim only a few days ago. He stood not far from Entrance K200, in the Sphere of the Assembly, the entrance he always used. From there it was only a short elevator ride to the alcove of Planet Nilfeheim.

  The Sphere was a complete ball, but from the outside it looked like a huge dome, meeting the ground at its equator. The outside area all around the Sphere was called the Park Ring and was a beautiful and meticulously maintained park 1000m wide, with grass, trees, lakes and walk paths. Plants and sculptures of many thousand worlds shared space with little pavilions, temporary art exhibits and special licensed mobile vendors. At any time you could see Pluribans, as the inhabitants of this world called themselves, doing sports, or enjoying a picnic on the grass. Many thousands of citizens and Assembly members came to Ring Park just for lunch everyday, still the park usually looked serene and empty during most of the year. Not today, the park was filled all around the Sphere with millions of Union Week spectators, waiting for the big parade and the opening of the famous Fest of Cultures.

  His Saresii friend also gazed outside through the 100m tall transparent window front at the strolling, laughing and merry masses. The corridor they were in also went all around the Sphere of Assembly and here new member species could set up displays to showcase their cultures and very often cultures decided to introduce themselves to others with their traditional foods, music and art. Here in the Concourse were also food courts, toilets, info bots and little shops selling things Assembly members liked to have.

  Today there were tables, booths and tents lining up, almost every member planet and civilization had a booth, tent or table offering their food and drink specialties. Of course food companies, drink and snack makers, restaurant chains and the like had their booths up as well, giving out samples of their products. This madhouse of flavors, scents, smells, steam, colors and music and voices was known as the opening event of the Fest of Cultures and would last till late at night, when concerts, music bands, theatre and dance exhibits would entertain the crowds and all food and drink was free of charge for any citizen.

  Not far from them both were the booths of Nilfeheim. Encouraged by their last success, three innkeepers had set up shop. Egill smiled as he saw Hogun Olafson lifting a full barrel of mead onto an arti-grav cart as if it was empty. Behind the sales tables was Elena setting up the register and behind her, helping unpack souvenirs and trinkets was little Exa, who wasn't so little anymore. In the tent behind them was Midril stirring a huge kettle with stew, while a dozen helpers diced fish and other ingredients at a frenzied pace.

  Sif in her finest leathers, fur cape and sword, balanced two bo
wls, and to Egill's annoyance handed one to Algear. He made his best grumpy face and snarled at her. "The other bowl better be for me!"

  "Sorry Uncle Egill, but this one is for your Narth friend!"

  Egill cursed and turned and looked right at the Narth representative. "Could you not make at least a little noise when you do your sudden appearance?"

  "One has produced the equivalent of seven decibels of noise while walking from the Nilfeheim rest tent over there to here. One did not suddenly appear."

  "What is so fascinating about that rest tent anyway?"

  "The female companion of Nilfeheim native Innkeeper Hogun had produced a very small human being. One was permitted to witness when the final dropping phase occurred and one was made godfather of said human organic replicated being. One has studied much about the human tradition of godfathership and, among the many tasks associated with this highly fascinating title of honor and tradition, is to approach the miniature human and utter the phrase 'kutchi kutchi coo'."

  Egill dropped his chin. "You do what?"

  The Narth raised his index finger. "If the phrase is correctly repeated by applying tonal variations to the syllables, it entices the mini humanoid to respond with an activity called laughter. One finds this highly fascinating."

  Egill grunted. "I sure hope the child doesn't get any nightmares, having someone looking like the Grim Reaper himself bending over the crib!"

  Algear grinned. "My life has been ever more interesting since I met you. Those four weeks on your world were quite educational, to say the least."

  Egill still tried to comprehend what the Narth had said. "Did you just hear him?"

  The Saresii pointed towards the entrance of the Sphere. "In there we contemplate and discuss all these high important matters, big politics, sanctions, war and peace, we look concerned towards the Fornax and the LEO Galaxy, but if we live in a universe were a Narth learns to ice fish, arm-wrestle with your friend Hogun and learns baby talk and we are blessed to witness this miracle then things can't be all that bad. Perhaps the future will turn out just fine, and I for one, can't wait for what happens next."