The Star Traders: The Star Traders Series Volume One

by Gary W. Feather

  “Thank you, Abbot Lake.” Alberta smiled back. “I’m sorry she couldn’t join us, but she’s with friends of my family. Or at least that’s what Jacob Musashi told me.”

  “Yes. Brother Musashi told me about your problems.” Abbot nodded towards Jacob Musashi. “And fear not for your family members who’ve been harmed by the notorious poison of the ninja. Our healers know how to treat it.”

  #

  “If Brother Musashi told you about our problems, then I would like to ask if we could leave our children here for their protection.” Alberta bowed. “We can pay for-”

  “No. No.” Abbot Lake shook his head and touched Albert’s arm with a gentle wrinkled hand. “I would not think of it. Sister Williams was one of my nuns, thus she is family. I would wish nothing more than to offer her little cousins a safe place to stay to all the danger is over.”

  “Thank you, Abbot Lake.” Alberta said. “You’re very kind.”

  #

  Keiko suddenly stepped forward pass Alberta to face the abbot. Alberta saw fire burning in her eyes. What’s with Keiko? Heidi placed a hand on Keiko’s should to retrain her, but she pushed Heidi’s hand off. The monk and nun behind the abbot looked nervous. This gave more evidence to Alberta’s mind that they were the abbot’s bodyguards. The abbot held a hand to restrain them.

  “Those children are Yin just like Erica Williams.” Keiko snapped. Her arms were akimbo. “Half of them are t-females. They’ll have male genitals just like Erica. Will that be a problem? Erica said she was mistreated here because she’s t-female, but at least she was an adult. I’m worried about how they’ll be treated. They’re all my little cousins too.”

  #

  The abbot blushed and bowed. “I’m so sorry about the way Erica was treated here. Many were surprised by her t-female body and weren’t sure whether to consider her male or female. It’s a mistake we made for we are suppose to face the illusions of this life rather than enforce outdated opinions of how the genders must look and act. It only later came to the attention of me and others like Brother Musashi. She was not the only one to be mistreated by eight out-caste monks that once were at this monastery. They’ve since been killed out. They’re leader and two others are in prison for rape of another nun at this monastery. She’s not t-female, but…doesn’t look very feminine. I am so ashamed by this, but we do not approve of those scum. We also do not swipe it under the rug and pretend it never happened. I am truly sorry, Keiko Williams. I wish I had a chance to tell Sister Williams that in person.” The abbot bowed deeply.

  “Th-thank you, Abbot Lake.” Keiko returned the bow.

  #

  The abbot also agreed to allow Saul Menendez and the other teachers to stay at the monastery too. Saul and the teachers took the children to where they’d stay at the monastery. Saul had told Alberta that he wasn’t worried about whether or not there’d be enough room for the hundreds of children. But it turned out that the monastery was unbelievably huge with more than enough beds and cots for the few adults and all the children.

  After a five hours Alberta was told by a short male doctor that Piper was better and Alberta could come alone to see her. She followed the doctor to where Piper was sitting up in bed. Piper had a tray over her bed with a cup of tea and a bowl of white rice that she was stuffing into her mouth.

  “Al…ber..da!” Piper exclaimed with her mouth full.

  “Piper! Darling are you okay?” Alberta kissed her a dozen times on the face before Piper had a chance to reply.

  “I’d tell you if you save for later, dear.” Piper chuckled.

  “I love you!”

  “I love you too.” Piper smiled. Then swallowed some tea. “But I am so hungry.”

  “Uh-a consequence of the antidote.” The doctor said and nodded to the nurse, who stood on the other side of Piper’s bed. “Everything is fine now. We did a blood work that turned out to be clean of the poison.?”

  “Thank you, doctor.”

  “Yes.” Piper nodded and stuffed some more rice in her mouth. “And I was telling the nurse about our daughter Erica used to be a nun here.” Piper swallowed. She looked at the nurse and pointed at Alberta. That’s my wife Alberta. Erica’s other mother.”

  “Hello, ma’am.” The nurse politely smiled and nodded.

  #

  Now that the wounded were cured Alberta and her people gave their goodbyes to the children, Saul and the teachers, and the monks and nuns of the monastery.

  “Captain Williams?” Jacob Musashi approached Alberta and Piper as they were about to move the convoy out of the monastery’s walls.

  “Yes, Brother Musashi?” Alberta said.

  “I was wondering if I could go with you again and bring some friends with me.” Jacob Musashi gestured to the dozen of monks and nuns that had followed him. “I’ve trained them myself. They’re really good fighters. I think you might need some in the future.”

  Alberta nodded. “Okay. If you vouch for them then that’s good enough for me.”

  “Thank you, Captain Williams.”

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDREDTWENTY-SIX

  Running from the big one

  One of the Siddhartha star system’s hyperspace laser stations jumped Guinevere’s Daughter into hyperspace. She jumped out in the Yoni star system. After docking at the main spacestation orbiting the planet G-spot they made some trading actions with the Bonobo.

  A couple of days later they left the planet’s orbit and Alberta was fine with the outcome of their trade there. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either.

  “Sometimes its difficult to trade with human beings that hate wearing clothes.” Alberta commented on the bridge to her wife who was sitting in Janet’s XO chair.

  “It’s not just the nudity.” Piper chuckled. “They seem so unconcerned about sex that they’ll happily screw in front of you.”

  “Yes, I surprised how flexible that elder woman was.” Alberta commented with her finger on her chin. “She must have been over a hundred.”

  “Next time one of them Bonobos ask us to join them you say no.” Piper shook a finger. “Instead of looking at me and asking.”

  “Sorry. I just wanted to be polite.” Alberta chuckled. Piper slapped her arm. Alberta contacted the nearest hyperspace laser station in the Yoni star system. She paid for Guinevere’s Daughter’s spot in the queue. Next came the journey through local space out at the edge of Yoni star system to the queue of spaceships waiting for their turn to be launched into hyperspace by the hyperspace laser station.

  #

  An hour and fifteen minutes later after Daughter had journeyed through the queue. She was happy to see a pair of Kansbar corvettes patrolling the area that should give the Lorkiiz starships pause if the still dare to follow us.

  “I just got confirmation from the laser station, captain.” Agatha Gee announced from her communication station. “We’re to proceed to the launch location. They’ve sent us an automated program for our computers to get there.”

  “Good. Thanks, Agatha.” Alberta said. She glanced at her map screen and a data screen. “Send them a big thank you from me.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  “Donna, did you get the program?” Alberta asked her pilot. She blew a kiss at Piper.

  “Yes, captain. Got it.” Donna and co-pilot were working on it.

  Alberta rubbed the back of her neck. In a few minutes the map screen showed the image of Daughter as she maneuvered into the launch location behind the hyperspace laser station. Most of the station consisted of the ultra gigantic laser, while the spacestation attached to it was just there to control the giant beast. Hyperspace lasers were able to jump a spaceship into hyperspace and out of it. Designed by scientists on old Earth over a thousand years ago. It was the standard ability of traveling between stars for humans within civilized human space. Outside of civilized space only great starships like Guinevere with her huge FTL engines could travel between the stars. The reason for this was how incredibly expensive hyperspace lasers were.
Of course FTL engines weren’t cheap either that’s why they were used only by military, corporations or large clans.

  “Bring up the sail, Donna.” Alberta ordered.

  “Yes, captain. Raising the sail.” Donna replied.

  Alberta looked at the map screen where she could see the electro-magnetic sail appear behind the rocketship. The sail was six times the length of the rocketship. Then the center of the sail moved forward over the rocketship to engulf most of it.

  Suddenly a Lorkiiz starship jumped out of hyperspace nearby Daughter. Alarms went off around the bridge.

  “Where do those idiots come from?” Alberta shouted at Fiona.

  “I don’t know, captain.” Fiona was leaning over the shoulder of one of her sensor techs and pointing at one of the young woman’s data screen. “It came out of no where. No warning at all.”

  “Captain, I’m getting a warning from the station manager. She doesn’t want us to jump with another vessel that close to us.” Agatha Gee waved from her communications station.

  “The sail is raised and ready to be struck.” Donna announced.

  “Thanks, Donna.” Alberta rubbed the back of her neck and tried to decide what to do next. Then just as soon as the Lorkiiz starship appeared it vanished. “They’re gone. Fiona, did they jump into hyperspace or is it using stealth tech?”

  “I can positively tell you that it jumped into hyperspace, captain.” Fiona threw up her arms. “I know I missed it when they were jumping out of hyperspace, but I could tell that they had after they appeared. Sorry about not catching them earlier.”

  “Understood, Fiona.” Alberta turned to her pilot. “Are the sails still up, Donna?”

  “Yes, captain.” Alberta moved her eyes to Agatha Gee. “Agatha tell the station chief that our sail are still raised and we’re ready to be struck.” Alberta gave her a thumbs up, which Agatha returned.

  “Yes, captain.” Agatha said. “The station manager apologizes for the delay and has given us a discount on our jump.”

  “Send her my gratitude.” By the time Alberta looked at her map screen the hyperspace laser struck their sail and they were in hyperspace.

  #

  Guinevere’s Daughter jumped out of hyperspace in the Sado star system.

  “Shut down the sails, Donna.” Alberta’s eyes were on a data screen.

  “Yes, captain.” Donna Williams said. “Shutting down the sails. Rocketship is cooling at a normal rate.”

  “Thank you. One burst of the reverse engines, Donna.”

  “One burst, captain.” Donna nodded.

  “Fiona, launch a probe.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  Alberta’s map screen showed an exhaust burst coming out of the bow of the rocketship which came from the reverse engines to slow the ship. When a ship jumps out of hyperspace it’s still going at near light speed, so it has to go through a few bursts of the reverse engines to slow it to normal speed.

  Alberta looked up from her screens to look at Piper. “Most likely it was the larger of the two Lorkiiz starship that we escaped in the Kansbar star system.”

  “That’s what my sensors told me, captain.” Fiona Williams the sensor chief said at her station. “If it wasn’t then it was the same class of Lorkiiz starships.”

  “If they know we’ve destroyed the smaller one then they’re going to be pissed.” Piper said in her chair that once was Janet’s. She crossed her legs at the ankle.

  “I agree.” Alberta saw the first info dump from the nearest buoy had arrived.

  #

  Alberta sat down at the head of the conference table aboard the rocketship Daughter within the Sado star system as they headed for the planet Hojo. Jacob Musashi sat between Donna and Fiona. Donna was seated on Alberta right with Piper on her left. I guess I could use some advice and brain storming from my department heads. At least that’s what I’m here for. Alberta closer her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck. Damn it! Why does my neck hurt so much?

  Alberta felt a familiar pair of strong feminine hands encircle the back of her neck to massage it. “Oooooh. Thank you, honey.” Alberta opened her eyes to see an amused Piper seated at the table with her hands folded together. Who’s massaging me? She looked back and saw Jacob Musashi. “Oh! You don’t need to do that. Um.”

  “Okay, captain.” Jacob Musashi dropped his hands. He was still smiling. “I thought you needed it.” He gave Piper a friendly nod before sitting back between Donna and Fiona.

  Alberta cleared her throat and looked at Piper. Piper gave her a wink and giggled. Alberta slapped her arm.

  Catriona Zhou entered the room and flopped down by Piper. Well that’s everybody!

  Alberta raised her gavel and struck the table top. “Meeting begins!”

  The department heads and Jacob Musashi straightened and all looked at Alberta.

  “We’re here to talk about the Lorkiiz starship that we just saw back in the Yoni star system. Agreed?” Alberta said. Everyone nodded. “Good. Donna, you can start.”

  “Thank you, captain.” Donna smiled and tapped her tablet for her notes. “This Lorkiiz starship is bigger than the one we destroyed the last time we were in this star system. It might even be bigger than any other Lorkiiz starship we’ve ever come across. And it recklessly jumped out of hyperspace right nearby us. We were right in front of a hyperspace laser station about to be struck. I can’t imagine what would of happened to them if the station manager had stopped the launch. We’ve had problems understanding these aliens to say the least. Well, Fiona I believe you have something to say.”

  “Yes. Thank you, Donna.” Fiona gave a smiled pass Jacob Musashi. Fiona tapped her tablet to bring some images up on a wall screen. “This is the first Lorkiiz starship that we’ve encountered. Here are its measurements. This is the second one. This is the third one that we destroyed here in the Sado star system. And this is the large one that we first saw in the Kansbar star system. As you can see from a comparison of their measurements its the biggest of them. You will notice that all four of them look exactly alike. Their exhaust appears to be some sort of plasma. My sensors only recognize a nuclear fusion reactor within these starships. You’d think a starship would need an antimatter reactor to power it like most human starships do. But I’ll leave that to Catriona’s analysis. So take it away, Catriona.”

  “Thank you, Fiona.” Catriona Zhou the chief engineer nodded and rubbed her chin as she gazed at the images of Lorkiiz starships on the wall screen. “Like Fiona said these things are starships, but they don’t have an antimatter reactor like most human starships do. They use a nuclear fusion reactor as their power source. Modern science. Human science tells us that nuclear fusion is not powerful enough to jump a starship into hyperspace. All hyperspace laser stations are powered by antimatter as well. Now its possible that their antimatter reactor is hidden from Fiona’s sensors by some sort of shielding. Though I can’t see why they’d want to go to that sort of trouble. Of course both types of reactors need shielding to protect the crew from radiation, but not to block sensors. So how are they able to break the laws of modern physics? That’s what I want to know. Over to you, Tiffany.”

  “Thank you Catriona.” Said Tiffany Williams the tactical chief. “Like us the Lorkiiz use missiles and counter-missiles. This Lorkiiz starship has four aft missile launch tubes and seven forward facing launch tubes that are on its bow and sides. It also has three laser emitters on its bow. This makes it better armed than either our Guinevere or Guinevere’s Daughter. One good point is that the speed of their missiles and counter-missiles are slower than our own. Though not by much.” Tiffany shrugged. “It might help us a little. Now all the Lorkiiz starships that we’ve seen so far aren’t as powerful as a Yin Navy frigate. Though this thing is close.” Tiffany checked her tablet again before looking up at Alberta. “That’s all I got, captain.”

  “Thank you, Tiffany.” Alberta nodded with a smile. “Speaking of navies.” Alberta looked at Jacob Musashi. “Is it possible that your
Suiko navy could lend us a hand? Just one frigate would be nice. Actually a corvette would be nice too.”

  “I’m sorry, captain.” Jacob Musashi folded his hands in a way reminiscent of namaste hand position in yoga. He still smiled. “I don’t believe even a member of the shogun’s family get a Suiko navy ship to escort Daughter from star to star. Now I might be able to call for help if we’re inside a Suiko star system, but other than that.”

  Alberta nodded. “Good enough. Thank you, Jacob.” Alberta looked at her department heads. “Anything else?” No response. Alberta noticed the acting cargo chief Mika Williams hadn’t said anything about it, but that wasn’t too surprising for had nothing to contribute like a few other department heads. I need to speak with her. She had nothing to do with what Tawny Williams did. I understand that and she should hear it from me face to face. “Fine. Meeting adjourned.” Alberta smacked her gavel on the table top.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDREDTWENTY-SEVEN

  Attacked by the Yin Confederation

  Several hours later Alberta and Mika shook hands with the elderly Captain Nakatomi of a local ore mining freighter. She had some valuable minerals to sale them at a good price.

  “Thank you again, Captain Williams.” Nakatomi rubbed her frail hands together. Her ship coveralls had patches in them, though they were clean. The two tough-looking crewmen/grandsons behind her wore similar worn coveralls. Standing behind Alberta was Keiko and Heidi. “I greatly appreciate the business. My family is going through some hard times at the moment. I hope you get to where your going. Pleasant journeys.”

  “Thank you, Captain Nakatomi.” Alberta bowed to the elderly captain. “I hope your family has better luck in the future. Pleasant journeys.”

  They parted company. Mika turned nervously to Alberta. “Captain, I think this stuff might be stolen. I have this feeling about it.”

  “I do too, Mika.” Alberta sighed. “But at the moment we’re a little on the desperate side ourselves. We can’t be too picky.”