Elfi deepened our knowledge in communications and Galacto Politics. It turned out she was very knowledgeable how the individual members of the Union worked together, what the issues were and how they perceived each other. The internal politics of the Union on the federal level were easy to understand, but the nuances below were quite complicated. I learned many surprising little facts and issues I had never known to exist.
Hans, who knew much about that as well, deepened our knowledge about the various task forces, federal departments, and law enforcement agencies that existed, about crime and counter-intelligence efforts and challenges.
The Worm, so I learned, was only one of several such organizations. And even the Worm had independent cells. Old criminal organizations of the Ult, the Sarans, the Pan Sarans, Terra and all the others did not disappear after the Union was founded but adapted and evolved. Some united their efforts and some fought each other for territories and influence. It sounded worse than it was as he said that the Union was a very lawful and orderly Mega-culture if looked at as a whole. Wetmouth considered crime and criminal organizations even to be a vital part of a civilization and that only a few completely totalitarian societies such as the X101 and Klack did not know organized crime. Krabbel, however, told us that crime, in general, was unknown on Archa as well and that theft and murder were virtually unknown in their society. Despite their carnivore origin, the Archa were among the most innocent and open societies I had ever heard about.
Shaka gave us complicated helm exercises and also made sure we all understood the different helm systems and their technical aspects. Especially Narth and Elfi had still very little helm experience.
Doing all this filled our days and time flew, even in these uneventful surroundings.
On the first Saturday after our arrival, Wetmouth did take us on a geological tour on the surface of the planet and surprisingly Har-Hi did ask her lots of questions, and I knew he wasn’t just pretending to be interested.
As we returned with the Crawler Cat and several boxes of rock specimens, the commander greeted us at the entrance. “I see you do keep yourself busy, and I am actually quite pleased that you keep to yourself. Maybe I misjudged you to be just another bunch of busybodies. So what did you do out there anyway? We watched you as far as we could and didn’t see you do any races or other stupid things.”
Wetmouth opened a specimen box and said, “We did a geological survey, and I think this world is quite rich in minerals and has an abundance of iron ore. If I am correct, I think there are a wealth of rare minerals to be found.”
He looked into the box with rocks and shrugged. “I guess that can be interesting, but iron ore is quite abundant everywhere, I personally don’t see the attraction, but I guess you science officer types find carpet mites interesting. I actually came to tell you that you are welcome to use the base ship to go to Richter 5. Maybe over the weekend and make me a nice long report about those ruins you mentioned.”
Without really giving us a chance to say anything, he walked off.
Hans said, holding an entire stack of sample boxes, “If you ask me, I think he wants us off the base for the weekend. Every time this character talks to us, I feel I need a shower.”
Narth, who stood next to Wetmouth looking inside the open specimen box, said, “I can confirm that suspicion. He was quite nervous and hoped we would take him up on his offer.”
Krabbel said, “But we scheduled the rest of the day as free time. I wanted to go to the amusement park again.”
Mao laughed. “There are no scarier rides than the elevators of Archa, and he can’t get enough of roller coasters.”
Krabbel spread his upper leg pairs and said, “Roller coasters are much more fun and besides, there is a robot vendor that sells freeze-dried ice cream. It looks like colored sand, but it is ice-cream!”
I shrugged. “He didn’t give us an order or anything, so we can do that tomorrow. Go and have fun you two.”
Narth held up his hand and three fingers. “You should say you three as I intend to accompany the Archa and experience the rides again.”
I grinned. “Don’t tell me you actually enjoy that?”
Narth cocked his head and said after a brief moment of silence, “One comes to the conclusion that I actually do. It is fascinating. I think I just discovered what enjoying means. Besides, one must sample freeze-dried ice cream, again.”
Shaka, Hans, and Elfi left the group to watch a Virtu-Theater show. They went to experience a new Saran opera. In it, you could take the role of one of the performers, but you ended up singing three hours before you actually were allowed to kill the evil guy or kiss the girl. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.
Cirruit and Har-Hi decided to go back to the Fleet house and sleep a while. There was nothing Cirruit would rather do than sleep, except perhaps shopping.
Har-Hi said before they left, “I’m actually going to read a while and check out that book Wetty recommended, Rock Hounding for Beginners. I am sure it will put me soundly to sleep.”
Wetmouth could not be kept away from the labs, where she wanted to catalog our finds and do some further analysis.
So it came that I suddenly found myself alone. Riding a weird contraption with Krabbel holding to the car and listening to him scream at every turn was fun perhaps two times... not twenty.
As much as I enjoyed our excursion, my scientific curiosity was well satisfied, and I didn’t want to look at rocks through a microviewer.
So I simply stood on one of the main artery slide belts and let it carry me through the sections of the base.
There were faster inter-station transport tubes, but I wasn’t in a hurry and had no particular goal.
After passing through the main complex and the connection tunnel to the station recreation park, I stayed on the belt, and it carried me to the third dome where Richter town was.
It was eerie to see an entire town, designed to be home to twenty or maybe thirty thousand individuals, completely empty. Neat rows of family houses, clean streets, and tree-lined boulevards with little stores, shopping centers, and businesses were all silent and empty of life.
The town had an artificial sky simulating the open sky of a Terran-type world with one golden sun, clouds, birds, and light wind.
I wondered if anyone would ever live here, but there was no industry except the Fleet Base and thus no incentive to move here.
The downtown area had a nice little shopping district with small shops and restaurants. Most were empty but not all.
I had left the slide belt and was slowly walking along a pedestrian shopping area. A shoe store for human females caught my eye. It was a boutique with expensive brands; we had the same one in the Starport Mall on Nilfeheim and it was one of those places I had visited with Sif, Astrid, Elena, and Hedda. I wondered what they were doing right now. From my last talk with Egill, Sif was studying hard to catch up on what she had missed and had become a very good student. Elena, of course, would soon be the first female clan chief in Nilfeheim history and would marry. Hedda and Astrid were dead. While I was thinking about these things, I noticed the door was unlocked. It slid open as I walked by and so I went in. There was a fine layer of dust, and I did not see a robot attendant. The sales room was not all too big, and the shop lights did not come on, but it was not dark. Light came through the windows from the outside and cast the entire store in a mild shadowy atmosphere. It smelled of leather, perfume, and new fabrics.
Rows of shelves and display stands featured shoes, footwear, and boots mostly for humanoid females.
Looking at them made the other side of my personality stir, and I could not help but wonder how some of those shoes might look on me. So, with no one around, I tried on a pair of heeled boots.
A voice interrupted the silence, “Oh those are nice. They would go great with a mini-skirt.”
I almost jumped out of my skin, and my hand dashed to my side arm, but I recognized the voice and, with the guilty feeling being caught doing something
wrong, I turned to look. Wetmouth stood in the door of the shop.
A thousand thoughts went through my head. What would they think about me if they found out? What would Har-Hi and Hans think?”
She came in all the way and took a pair of sandals from a display stand and said, “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I didn’t feel like examining rocks and decided to see what you were up to.”
My mind raced to find some sort of explanation when she reached out for my hand. “It’s perfectly all right. Don’t be ashamed. I am a Sojonit. I understand.”
Her hand was warm and tender, and the gentle tone of her voice made me relax, and I sighed, “I’ve battled this demon, this curse, all my life, and I still don’t really know to which side I belong.”
She squeezed my hand a little tighter, and I could see her big green eyes sparkle behind the slits of her mask. “I’d gladly help you, but I don’t think you need to choose a side. Just find a balance between them. You know not everything needs to be black or white; there is always a third option.”
What she said resonated with me; maybe she was right. Maybe I didn’t need to choose between Eric and Freya and could find a balance between both sides of my personality.
She kissed me on the cheek and said, “Let me try on these sandals and then let’s go to the shop I found across the street. They do have great outfits.”
It never came to that, as Har-Hi called us, “Eric, could you come to the Swine and Dine? They got ribs tonight!”
It was the special code we had come up with if one had an important issue and feared he could be overheard.
With my uniform boots back where they belonged, we rushed to the next IBT and reached the main concourse of the Base Starport in a few minutes. After crossing the open area, we reached the restaurant. We arrived almost at the same time as Krabbel, Mao, Narth, and Hans. The others were already there. We purchased ribs to go and followed Har-Hi to my rooms. We spoke the entire time about ribs and souvenirs. Har-Hi praised the special sauce, and Cirruit told us about the souvenirs he had seen.
Only after we had closed the doors of my suite, and Cirruit assured us the room was secure, Har-Hi said, “About an hour ago, a space ship landed and it is a Kartanian Armed Freighter.”
Elfi said, “We are not exactly friendly with the Kartanians, but we have trade relations with them and their ships are sold everywhere and to anyone.”
Har-Hi nodded. “True that, but this particular armed freighter is the Blood Lust of Captain Grimgore, a notorious pirate and high on the Union wanted list, accused of acts of piracy, the trade in sentient life forms and is suspected to be behind several Colony raids.”
No one spoke as he continued, “I saw Union personnel and robots starting to load Union Fleet supplies into the cargo holds of the pirate ship.”
Shaka cursed, “Holy shit, there are warehouses with Wolfcraft fighters, Quasimodos, Cerberus Robots and I am sure there are secure warehouses with Translocator cannons and bombs.”
Wetmouth turned from the GalNet Terminal and said, “I can’t call out; the entire system is powered down.”
Just as she tried again, the terminal came on in local connection only mode and Commander Cardwell appeared. He said, “It was just noticed you tried to use GalNet. I am sorry, but we are upgrading software components, and a shutdown was necessary. Since I see you are all together, are there any Data Heads among you?”
I said, “Sir, I fail to understand the significance of this question!”
He snarled impatiently, “I asked you a simple question, and I expect you to answer it!”
“Sir, this pertains to private information, and I am not compelled to answer it unless you can give us a valid reason.”
He almost yelled, “Because I am ordering a complete communications blackout.”
I knew now that he was fully aware of what was going on and said, “What is the reason for the blackout? Are we under attack by that pirate ship and are you under siege?”
There was a pause, and we heard another voice outside the visual pick up, “So I was right, my men did see the Dai snooping around, and he did recognize my ship. I want them dead!”
I said, “Why I am not surprised, Newport scum? I guess you missed watching the hanging of the Newport crooks. Dealing for the Worm and selling Union supplies, are we?”
A man with a bearded face moved into the visual pick up. “Remain where you are, and we let you live. Do anything, and we kill you all.” The bearded man’s eyes widened. “There is a Narth!”
Right after that statement, the terminal went black.
I said, “There is not a moment to lose. We need to get in our battlesuits and take our weapons before he opens this complex to the outside atmosphere or sends battle robots. We meet in five minutes at the main elevator.”
Now I cursed my decision not to read the second order chip earlier. I did take it out of the secret skin pocket, but there was no time to activate and listen to it.
Wetmouth flipped open the manual input keyboard from underneath the terminal, and her fingers flew over the symbols. “I have put the station computronic in a deep diagnostic cycle, which will cause it to shut down and restart. After such a reboot, it will have to be connected to Fleet Main before they can use it. That means they need to go to Environmental and shut down life support manually, and that isn’t done in a few moments. It also should disable most of the intruder containment systems of the base.”
Narth said, “I informed the Narth representative, and he will relay this information to Fleet Command.”
I praised them, “Good thinking, but now get going!”
The Auto-Dresser was not responding, getting a space or battlesuit was out. So I girded my blaster and went out.
Twelve S-10 Robots with shock batons stomped down the corridor and the lead unit snarled, “You are arrested. Resistance will be met with force.” I wondered why S-10 Robots were used for security on a base like this and not Cerberus Battle robots as usual. Not that I was complaining. We would have had no chance otherwise. I said to the lead bot, “No robot may arrest humans without a commanding officer present!”
The robot snarled, “Correct! Remain where you are till an officer arrives!”
I said, “No robot may issue commands to a human without a human supervisor present!”
Again, the robot followed its base programming and said, “Correct!”
The shock batons lowered. Those poor simple Multi-Use bots without computronic guidance were no real obstacle. So, I said to it, “Robot, weld all the elevator doors shut except the main shaft! Disengage communication equipment and follow verbally spoken commands only.”
“New order acknowledged.”
The others came running. Krabbel held four TKU blasters, Hans carried his big blaster, and Har-Hi wore his complete Dai battlesuit and handed me one of the old TKUI Rifles he had secured at Quagmire Bog.
He said to me, “Take this one. Looks like we have to go against bots and suited troops.”
“Am I the only one not traveling with an entire arsenal?” I said and looked at Wetmouth in surprise. She carried not only a blaster but also a long sword over her back, making me suddenly wish I had Mjördaren with me as well and I asked her, “A sword?”
She said, “It is a very special one; you’ll see!”
We went to the main elevator shaft. It was out of order, but Hans had little problem opening the sliding doors with force. I wanted to stick my head into the shaft, but Har-Hi pulled me back, and a laser beam singed my hair, luckily nothing else.
He said, “Part of the Intruder Containment System, independent from the main systems. We Dai lost quite a few men to those nasty shaft lasers in Union ships.” While he said that, he tossed a little round thing down the shaft.
We could hear the sharp shriek of laser beams and six sharp explosions. He then held one of his blades into the shaft and nodded. “My scan seeker has destroyed the nearby sensors.”
We all went in and climbed d
own the emergency ladder incorporated into the side of the wall. The shaft was barely lit and appeared to go on forever.
Har-Hi had taken point, and I was the last. He asked, looking up, “Where are we going exactly? Fighting our way to C&C and kill that bastard?”
I responded, “If they battle sealed it, it is as hard to penetrate as a battleship bridge. We go to the hangars and see if we can send a message with the Briggs TransDim Radio.”
Elfi said, “That’s a long way! Let’s hope we won’t run into any Cerberus Robots!”
Wetmouth, climbing just below me, said, “He is using S-10s all over the base because he cannot use Cerberus Robots. They are highly intelligent and have GalNet incorporated, and their programming cannot be altered.”
Cirruit, below Wetmouth, looked up. “Then we are lucky because there is a warehouse full of them! We wouldn’t stand a chance!”
I said, “That’s it then. We go and activate the Bots and let them secure the base!”
We had climbed all the way to the ground level, and I could barely feel my arms. It must have been 1000 meters at least. Hans had forced a door open; Cirruit yelled for me to look up and I saw the elevator car coming down at great speed! There was no way we could all make it through the hole before it hit us.
I fired my blaster into the rails, hoping to cut the power and engage the security breaks. The elevator car did come to a shrieking stop only about ten meters above my head
But molten metal showered down, and one blob of molten metal hit my wrist. It burned so bad I lost my grip on the ladder and fell!
A thin, barely visible silvery thread stopped my fall and Krabbel pulled me to safety; the elevator cabin rushed with speed centimeters past my feet, a heartbeat after I had cleared the shaft.
We had reached the ground level of the Crew Quarters tower. Access to the base concourse was blocked by a massive reinforced Ultronit Door. Commander Cardwell’s voice blared through the Base PA system, “I give you one last chance to surrender. I am no monster, and I make you an offer. I read your personnel files, and I know that Mr. Olafson has the highest security clearance there is. I need you and your code key to open a few doors for me. In exchange, I let your friends go free with the Brigg right away, and I will let you go on the first Free Space planet we stop. I even throw in a million credits! You should consider my offer. It is not a bad deal.”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 76