by David Buck
‘Ian, if we get the opportunity to get a clear shot at the Barus ship we will destroy it and the military worldwide is preparing alternatives. We owe that to the people of Earth after the pandemic, despite even what the Traders are saying. Also I want to see how the Traders will help us otherwise we take their ship from them.’
Ian suppressed a sigh of annoyance, as it looked like the major leaders had talked themselves around again to using military force. As the line of reasoning stood, he had not advised the other world leaders of the full problems associated with the Trader tattoos. He now decided to himself he probably would not do so until much later. He patiently stepped the US President through the logic again of why they were not attacking, but this time James Whiting was not buying into his rationale. The Australian prime minister then tried an additional pragmatic line of reasoning.
‘So James, even if we can get control of all the ships, how do we work the technology in our favour if the Barus ship flees and brings back a war fleet? To my mind all they would have do is to destroy the main ship on the ground and as many Trader sneak ships as they can find. For good measure they then level the most technically advanced nations back to the Bronze Age, and that most definitely involves the both of our countries.’
The US president was continuing on again how optimistic he was of seizing the ships, and that he had the backing of Russia and the Chinese. However Ian deflated him with a quick observation.
‘James, if the USA gets levelled by an alien war fleet, then both China and Russia will probably finish your country off because they can do so.’
James was silent as he continued listening to Ian, but the prime minister could still tell that he seethed with fury at the Barus.
‘Two things James, your country, and any others, will not be permitted to assault the Traders while they are in Australian jurisdiction. The only way forward then is to obtain Trader assistance with whatever technology we can obtain from them peacefully.’
Ian was aware of the tense silence at the other end of the satellite phone, as the US president was not even saying anything now to his advisors. After a few moments James spoke again softly and Ian could even detect sounds of consternation from other people in the room with the US President.
‘Very well Ian, we will do this your way, though I cannot rule out an attack later on the Barus. We also formally state our interest and involvement in the science mission. For the record I approve of your choice in the mission commander. Also note that other nations are not represented yet and this is a bone of contention for them.’
The once terse conversation continued on a few minutes longer between the two leaders. Afterwards Ian sat back and considered how much longer he could keep the other countries from attacking the Traders let alone the Barus.
***
Steve looked at his watch as he led the science team down the side ladder to the waiting runabouts. It was just 8am again and this time they were taking across both runabouts and the inflatable boats. He had to arrange this due to the increased number of scientists present, and also because both runabouts had several crates of food stacked along their decks.
The early morning ocean was relatively calm as the assorted boats slowly made their way to Middle island. Steve noticed that the Traders seemed to be very busy this morning running around with long hoses spraying out seawater. He felt a chill as he recalled the story of how they had defeated the Voorde infestation.
As the boats came close to the island, Steve could see Garendestat and two armed guards coming towards the beach. Steve throttled the runabout to idle as they were about five meters from the shore. He also motioned to the other runabout that was being driven by Dan to stand clear as well. The runabout radio crackled even as Steve realised that Garendestat was speaking into a communications device. Plainly then the radio could be used once both parties were close enough, and Steve also resolved at some stage to try his satellite phone.
‘Steve, can you please return to your own ship? We have an emergency here with a possible further discovery of Voorde eggs. We will contact you later today after we have dealt with this situation.’
Steve looked at the number of Traders running around the small island in a hurry and wisely refrained from offering to help. Several of the Traders were not even bothering to hide their features and the fear of Voorde had them in a mad rush. Steve fought down his fears, turned the runabout around and led the other boats back to the Aurora Discovery. They would have another meeting to further review what needed to be discussed with the Traders. Samantha and Rebecca exchanged quiet words in the rear of the lead runabout. For the return to their ship would allow them to further work on the tissue cultures that had been had obtained yesterday.
***
Garendestat watched the two small human boats start the return to their ship, and then calmly walked back to the landing ramp flanked by the two armed guards. Within moments he had picked up another water hose and began to lead his team around the island. The Trader teams hosed every part of the huge ship from underneath once the shields were lowered. Inside the ship, several other teams were hosing out several engineering spaces and smaller storage locations. After another hour the outside teams were given orders to return to the centre of the island.
A Trader engineer had uncovered several Voorde eggs in a small hold as he located spare parts, and although the eggs were now blackened and still, the Trader crew was taking no chances. Captain Narindestat himself led another team into the centre of an island and seemed to be enjoying the outside experience as he spoke.
‘Now if everyone from the outside teams is present here then we can go ahead with the next phase.’
The outside teams of Traders sat down in the sunlight and watched impassively as the landing ramp door was raised. The other open ports to the ship were soon closed as the captain spoke again.
‘Lieutenant, we tried everything on the Voorde except high air pressure, and our preferred air pressure is fractionally higher then the pressure on this planet. Now the other races like the Barus and Jerecab have worlds that use lower air pressures.’
The sound of compressors could he heard throughout the ship as it was quickly pressurised to three Trader atmospheres using the stocks replenished from the human planet. The Trader ship would hold the pressure for a few hours then rapidly decompress to one atmosphere. In several places inside the Trader ship, Voorde eggs that had escaped detection crackled in their fibrous shells and died, while a handful of dormant Voorde larva promptly expired even as they awakened to flee the pressure change.
Captain Narindestat and Garendestat again led the search and destroy teams around the whole area of Middle Island. Not a part of the rubble strewn island escaped a drenching from the high volume water hoses of the Traders. Garendestat thought his father was right in enjoying the day outside doing a necessary manual job.
***
Squadron Commander Tanuldesec was in reasonably good spirits as Tilmud usually are when left alone to their own devices. The crew had plenty to eat and drink on this short patrol and there had been little conflict yet between them. Tanuldesec had shrewdly estimated that the cloaked Trader drive section was within the inner parts of the solar system. So he merely ordered his ships to stay outside the orbit of the fourth planet. The Tilmud frigates patrolled a series of arcs in the outer solar system and always avoided getting too close to a major planet.
As far as Tanuldesec was concerned he was making a show of looking for the drive section without risking his ship. He reflected quietly to himself that any Tilmud officer worth his salt would do this rather than possibly throw his life away confronting a superior force. If his bridge crew gave any notice of this lack of resolve they wisely refrained from commenting, as a short life as a foot soldier awaited a transfer away from the frigate.
***
Lieutenant Damofestat considered the two Tilmud frigates at extreme range with distaste. It was not just that he, like all Traders, had only an active dislike to th
e Tilmud, there was more to it than that factor. The rationale amongst many Traders was that the Tilmud should not even be a space going species. Without their role as Zronte henchmen the Tilmud would be still planet bound.
The Trader lieutenant reviewed the course of two frigates from sneak ship fourteen. The sneak ship had undocked from the cloaked hyper drive module earlier, and had been taken further out of the system past the orbit of the planet the humans call Mars. The ship had also remained cloaked during the whole exercise that was now completing to his satisfaction, which he conveyed as he commented to his crew.
‘Like I stated at the start, the Tilmud are essentially too slow, too stupid and too predictable to be a threat in one on one ship combat. This is especially true with those frigates they are forced to operate.’
The other crew members quietly confirmed weapons locks and simulated attack runs that would have destroyed both Tilmud frigates three times over. Now satisfied that his exercise had been of value the lieutenant spoke again.
‘Now the Barus on the other hand are a different proposition. If that was a Barus cruiser out there instead of those frigates, then only the main ship or the drive module would be their equal. Indeed we would need the Illuria back in space to have any chance at all if one of their cruiser squadrons was to appear here.’
The sneak ship quietly withdrew back to the distant and cloaked hyper drive module, and lieutenant Damofestat thought further about the latest exercise results.
‘Perhaps I did not need to comment about Barus cruisers.’
The lieutenant knew though, that the exercise would give an added edge to his crew that he was seeking. Hopefully he could also prevent an outbreak of nonchalance that could prove fatal.
Damofestat was still concerned about the lack of direct contact with the Illuria. He had been surprised when they had intercepted two patchy video broadcasts to see that Captain Narindestat was speaking the human language. The lieutenant reviewed the tactical situation further, and was still hopeful the Illuria could regain the safety of space before any significant galactic forces arrived.
***
Omerio scanned the details of the new and unknown system his cloaked ship had entered. In moments his highly trained tactical mind took over as he analysed the dispositions of the three Tilmud ships. The star system consisted of three smaller planets and two gas giants, and what Omerio noticed right way was that the Tilmud ship dispensing the Voorde infestations was heading for the second planet instead of the cooler and dryer third planet.
After only a few moments of looking at the second planet’s statistics, he suppressed an oath of rage and resisted the urge to punch the navigation console. For even at this distance the second planet teamed with life. The world held a pre-space culture that crowded the communications frequencies and the Tilmud lifter was heading right for the planet with a deadly cargo.
Omerio promptly sent a powerful active sensor scan into the inner system, even as he ran the engines up to full power and his ship raced in on an intercept path. He gave a wry grin of satisfaction, as the active scan had made the two escorting Tilmud frigates change course and turn away from the plague ship towards his location. In moments he had the tactical battle plan plotted and altered course slightly. He wanted both to lower the intercept time and give a larger separation distance from the intercepting Tilmud frigates.
After three hours Omerio had to start to reduce speed as his cloaked ship raced past the path of the oncoming Tilmud frigates. The two heavy frigates, unaware of his cloaked ship, lumbered on outward to the source of his scan as he plotted his attack run on the Tilmud lifter.
Fortunately he had several probes that he could use as dumb missiles, and as he looked over the scanned data of the atmospheric lifter he noted several interesting details. Omerio now set his limited weapons to give the attack a reasonable chance of success. The attack range chime came on as the Barus ship began another round of heavy deceleration, but Omerio decided to hold his weapons fire until he was closer. His plan should work fine as the lifter was still well clear of the second planet. The range chime came on again, and Omerio released several missiles and re-programmed probes at the lifter. A screech of rage came through the communications channel as the lifter captain detected the attack and alerted the two other Tilmud ships.
Omerio calmly opened fire using short bursts from the average laser weaponry he possessed aboard his small ship. He wished that he had a few decent destroyer guns on his ship, but he knew that this would have made his ship too slow for his primary military intelligence role. He now looked at his navigation scope and saw the two frigates begin their cumbersome return, even as the first missiles and altered probes impacted the massive Tilmud lifter.
As he had intended, the impacts were all on the atmospheric components of the lifter. The small probes produced a series of small explosions along the trailing edges of the lifter wings, now retracted along the sides of the bigger ship. The missiles had also been on target and several larger explosions tore into the large aero spike engines on the back of the lifter. Omerio knew he could not destroy the lifter as he lacked the fire power. However he should be able to prevent the Tilmud from using it to murder an innocent pre-space species.
The range again increasing between the two ships, Omerio launched a second flight of missiles and continued to pepper the lifter with further laser fire. He was concerned that the lifter seemed to be also armed, for several heavier bursts of weapons fire now raced around his ship. He thought his ship would escape unscathed, but a short burst of laser fire bracketed and raked his cloaked ship.
The console on the Barus trading ship lit up with damage reports, most noticeably to the cloak and mercifully only one sub-light engine. Omerio immediately altered course and broke off his attack as the Tilmud frigates would return shortly. He could not afford to be slowed down further by incidental fire from the lifter. Omerio noticed that the lifter was now altering course away from the second planet, and he again checked for damage on the Tilmud ship. He noted that the wings and aero spike engines on the lifter were now non-operational.
The Barus trader was satisfied that he had done all he could to protect the unknown inhabitants of the second planet. Omerio now calmly plotted a course towards the outskirts of the star system, well away from the incoming frigates and prepared for yet another hyper space jump.
***
The Aurora Discovery quietly patrolled up to the edge of the Zeewyk channel, then turned south east again on another slow patrol of the eastern approaches to the Abrolhos islands. To the south and east the two Anzac frigates had been joined by several fast patrol boats in ensuring the quarantine of the islands. Steve was sitting in his command chair and quietly talking on his satellite phone to Ian Ridge in Perth.
‘Sir the Traders are apparently concerned about a few Voorde eggs they found and are again sweeping their ship. I think the risk is minimal so far as in no live Voorde drones have been detected. The abilities of the Traders and the landing location would negate nearly all the risks in my opinion. Note that we still have to keep the media and general public off the islands.’
Steve listened to the deep and calm voice of the prime minister as he responded to Steve’s analysis of the situation.
‘That is well and good Steve, though there is now a rising note of concern, even hysteria about the Voorde. A vocal group of people state that we should just nuke them and argue about it all later. Fortunately the Chinese and Russians are fixed on getting their hands on superior technology, and the Americans have been largely won over to a peaceful resolution.’
Steve was relieved to hear that further military action against the aliens was unlikely as the Australian prime minister continued to speak.
‘Now onto other matters, your appointment to control the science mission has generated some resentment amongst the Chinese and Russians. Although they do both support your appointment over placing an academic in command. The good news is that you have a lot of support from t
he ASEAN countries, in part due to the RAN’s humanitarian aid efforts over the last ten years.’
Steve was already well aware of this resentment from following earlier media reports and ventured a reply.
‘Douglas and I have a short list of names we would like to add to expand the science mission. We will only add another dozen people to the mission, and we have selected two Indian, three European, three Russian and four Chinese scientists. These people represent the best in their fields and we would both stifle the political objections and get the best possible technical people we can obtain.’
Steve then read out the list of names to the prime minister, who listed them down and gave a polite laugh over the phone as he again spoke.
‘Well I have a similar list here and we have five of those people already in Australia. We can have them over to your ship first thing tomorrow.’
Ian then read out the five names to Steve, who made a mental note to update Douglas as soon as the phone call was finished.
***
Captain Narindestat viewed the collection of dead Voorde eggs and larvae with real relief. No adult Voorde had been uncovered either dead or alive, and the collection of eggs and larvae showed evidence of disease and blight even before they died. The island based parties had not uncovered anything either as they had scoured with high pressure sea water the light coloured rocks that made up the island. A light stain coloured the ocean around the small island as the water hoses had washed the light soil away, and in places the footing on the island was now treacherous. The Trader captain considered the time of day and made a decision.