"And what of the other ships?"
"Upon receiving the warning from the Xiouthet and failing to make contact with many of the others, Lord Space Marshall Pwinnuth immediately ordered all ships to leave their primary locations and move to their alternate locations. Several ships were pursued by Space Command warships, leaving Pwinnuth to conclude the ships had been moving into position to attack the other half of the task force. The attacking ships must have been part of two different fleets. If their commanders had coordinated the operations a bit better, they might have gotten all our ships. They must have felt that no one would be able to get a message off."
The Emperor paced angrily around the room while Berquyth stood still, nervously waiting for the usual tirade.
"How, Berquyth? How did they locate our ships? Most haven't moved since arriving at their hidden locations." The calm and reasoned remarks of the emperor caught Berquyth completely off guard.
"Uh, we don't know yet, my Lord. Usually, their news services break stories like this immediately, but so far we've seen nothing. Carver must be keeping a very tight lid on the news."
"Carver again. I'm getting so tired of hearing that name. Perhaps I should have let Vroman replace her, after all."
"But then she would have been too far away for you to get her head, my Lord."
"Yes, but I have to wonder if it's worth it. I may have erred when I ordered that we contrive a way to keep her at Stewart after her tour of duty was up."
Berquyth was speechless. He had never heard his Emperor admit to having made a mistake and he didn't know how to respond. He couldn't possibly agree with the Emperor that he had made a mistake and one simply didn't argue with the Emperor either. He was relieved when Emperor Maxxiloth broke the silence.
"How does this affect our operation?"
"Minimally. We'll simply have to reduce the scope of the diversionary operations we'd planned, unless we send only one ship to each location."
"No, that's not acceptable. We must have at least two ships for each attack."
"Then we'll have to prioritize the list and reassign ships to just the top seven targets."
"See to it."
"Yes, my Lord."
Berquyth turned and hurried out while the emperor walked slowly around the room speaking to the mounted heads hung high on the walls around him. "Carver's head will yet grace these walls, my old enemies. She will have a place of honor among you, for she is proving to be worth any two of you."
* * *
Trader Vyx emptied the mug and ordered another ale. His dinner of real Terran beef and potatoes had left him thirsty, and this would be his third. The five undercover agents were sitting in the tavern Vyx and Byers used as their unofficial headquarters while on Scruscotto. Before Vyx's third drink arrived, Ker Blasperra approached the table and asked if he might sit down.
"Sure, Ker, take a load off."
The tall, gaunt alien pulled a chair out and sat down. "I was sorry to hear about the loss of your ship, Trader, but I suppose it's better that you happened to be away."
"Perhaps. Do you have any information about the Tsgardi who are responsible? They owe me a ship."
"Alas, I have little information. I only know that the ship on which I believe they arrived left the planet a few hours after your ship was— lost. I heard that only two Tsgardis, one limping very badly, reentered the ship before it left."
"Do you know how many disembarked from the ship originally?"
"My information is that twenty-one left the ship just after it landed."
"It sounds like it was a bad day for the Recozzi tribe."
"Recozzi?"
"I'm guessing it was Recozzi clan members, on a blood feud, who attempted to board my ship. I had to kill a Recozzi on Gollasko a while back."
"Yes, I heard about that. Shev Rivemwilth was very fortunate to have lived through the attack."
"Yeah, Recozzi left quite a hole in one of his hearts."
"What will you do now, Trader, without a ship?"
"I'll find another ship and get back down to business, of course."
"I'm pleased to hear that. I have several lucrative deals available, but I'm afraid they're time sensitive."
"I understand, Ker. I've traveled all over this planet and looked at everything available here, but nothing suits my particular needs."
"Then you'll be leaving Scruscotto?"
"I've already booked passage to Stewart. If I don't find anything there, I'll travel on to Urgucet. I know a used ship dealer who can usually find something special if he doesn't have it himself."
"Surely you can't steal another ship from Stewart?"
"Steal? No, the early days of confusion at the base have passed, but they might be interested in liquidating some of the old ships they've commandeered during interdiction activity. I understand they're building quite a collection."
"Yes, the Raiders are getting desperate for people in this sector. Aside from the seizure of ships carrying stolen goods or illegal contraband, Space Command has been arresting their spotters, charging them with sedition, and confiscating their ships."
"I can see where losing all their spotters would put quite a crimp in the Raider operations."
"If you get a ship, I can place you with the Raiders immediately. They paid quite well before Carver started impounding ships, but now they're paying triple for spotters."
"Getting many takers?"
"None. Everyone is afraid of losing their ship and being sent to a prison colony just for reporting ship movements."
"I can understand that. However, I'm no more interested now than the last time you asked. If I risk going to prison, it will be for something that holds the opportunity for substantial rewards."
"Very well, Trader." Ker Blasperra stood up. "When you've acquired another ship, I'll be happy to find an acceptable deal for you. Will you be leaving soon?"
"Today is our last night on Scruscotto. This has been a sort of 'last decent meal' party before we face the reality of suffering with freighter food for a month."
"I wish you well, and limited digestive problems. Until we meet again."
Vyx grinned. "Ditto, Ker."
* * *
The three-ship taskforce led by Captain Payton of the GSC Battleship Thor had attacked the Milori location closest to Stewart, so it was logical that it would be the first to arrive back at the base following its confrontation. Stewart's ship maintenance crews were alerted while the ships were still several hours away and they were waiting at the shipyard area as the ships entered the asteroid base. Repair crews and bots deployed as yard tugs moved the GSC ships into the enclosed docks. The tugs had earlier removed three former Milori ships from the enclosed docks and re-anchored them against the cavern wall where they would remain until all SC ship repairs were completed. The tugs also moved the Milori ship brought back by the three-ship task force to the far wall and tethered it there. Once teams recorded identifying information about the dead Milori, the bodies would be disposed of. Following previous hostilities, the Milori stated they had no interest in recovering bodies of deceased crewmembers. Graves registration had interred the bodies in shipping containers of the type carried by freight haulers and ejected the containers towards a nearby sun. The captain and first officer of each returning ship would report to Admiral Carver's office for a debriefing session where Jenetta and Captain Lofgren of Intelligence would discuss the entire mission from arrival at the deployment point to completion of the cleanup. Each ship's captain had already complied with the standing order to submit a report and ship's logs directly to SHQ within 24 hours following the completion of the action.
All severely damaged ships involved in the operation returned to Stewart over the course of the month following the Thor's return. Engineers had quickly repaired most and returned them to service. They had patched every hole in the hulls, with entire plates replaced if deemed necessary. The ships struck by torpedoes required much more extensive repairs, but all would return to servic
e within three more months. The least severely damaged ships had performed their own repairs at the battle site and continued on their patrols. Jenetta arranged for a memorial ceremony in the convention center for those crewmembers killed in action. She knew it might only be one of many as the date for the Milori invasion grew closer.
* * *
Siena had seen few real celebrations by the crew of the Lisbon, but the first blooms of iron produced by the new smelting process screamed for a party. The first production of iron was no less important to the Lisbon crew stranded on a hostile planet than it must have been to humankind on Earth; perhaps more so because bronze, copper, and tin had already been available on Earth before iron making began. With the advent of iron and steel production on Siena, their lives would improve measurably. Wood, bone, and stone implements wore out much too quickly and didn't have the strength to complete many of the tasks required. Wooden axles on the carts added too much weight because they had to be many times thicker than a steel axle would be. Stone axes, stone spearheads, and bone knives broke, or wore out much too quickly and needed replacement often.
On this occasion, Admiral Vroman was actually the driving force behind the party. He knew they needed the relaxation that a real party would offer after the stress they had endured for months. He'd even consented to the production of a fermented liquid similar to ale weeks earlier, although individual allotments at the party would be limited. Starting at dinnertime, the party was open to everyone in the camp, except those individuals who had guard duty at the two passes. Non-drinkers would relieve them a couple of hours before midnight so they might enjoy the festivities as well. Using basic musical instruments fashioned since the camp had come into existence, amateur musicians would provide something akin to music during the festivities. Flutes were plentiful, in addition to a few stringed instruments made from dinosaur tendons and drums covered in stretched gelk or dinosaur skin.
The party was a huge success. Admiral Vroman's fear that an emergency would interrupt it was groundless. He decided he was just becoming paranoid, because every time things had started to look up, something happened to dampen spirits.
The weather was changing. Everyone noticed that the days were becoming cooler and the temperature dipped significantly once the sun set. It was a sure sign it was almost time for the harvest to begin. The peaks of the mountains surrounding the valley had never completely lost their snowcaps and now the white area was expanding noticeably. Lt. Rimes, the camp's geologist, believed that temperatures would drop into the freezing range overnight during the coming months, but that little or no snow would fall in the valley. They had constructed a special building to function as a cold storage warehouse. Water from the cold stream flowing down from the mountain behind the camp ran through terracotta piping laid in the floor and walls. They expected a bumper crop of the tubers and vegetables they had planted and cultivated during the growing season. Following the harvest, the cold storage building should help preserve freshness levels.
In case the hunters couldn't provide enough fresh meat in the months ahead, they had jerked great quantities of gelk meat. They had increased the camp's gelk herd from the original two animals to sixteen. All had been broken for riding and/or drawing wagons, and it would upset the crew to kill any for food, but they would if necessary for survival. Since breaking the first two for riding, rounding up gelks had become almost an easy chore. They only killed new animals for food at present. They had built a special corral on the other side of the river for animals rounded up for food, but the number they kept was limited by the amount of food that could be gathered for feed. If they were able to domesticate the gelk sufficiently for pulling a plow by the new planting season, they would plant feed hay in a couple of enormous fields recently cleared.
At the breakfast meeting the day after the party, Admiral Vroman asked if everyone felt good. The smiles around the table were sufficient proof of that.
"Good, because it's time to start a new project. We must reinforce the North pass against the time when the dinosaurs begin their spring migration south. I propose we build a stone wall, much like the castle walls of medieval Europe. It will have a door that we can open or lower, but the dinosaurs should see nothing but an impenetrable barrier when they try to come through the valley. I don't want to have to fight them off twice each year; I want them to find a new migration path."
"A stone wall, sir?" Lt. Pyers said. "That will take huge blocks of stone and we don't have cutting instruments or the means to transport the blocks."
"We have some tools and we'll have more soon. The water saws will cut stone, and, although it takes significantly longer than cutting wood, they do a good job. They were invaluable for making the grinding stones for the mill. In addition, the new forge will soon begin making iron sledgehammers, wedges, drills, and chisels as part of our first products. We'll need to begin planning the wall immediately and excavating for a foundation. As for as transporting the blocks, we have wagons and gelks. Lt. Rimes has found an excellent grade of granite for the wall and we need only cut a road for the carts."
"How high of a wall are you proposing, sir?" Lt. Commander McCloud, the base's architect asked.
"Ten meters minimum, since we've already seen dinosaurs that long, but preferably fifteen."
"But they were only six meters high when they were standing on their hind legs," Lt. Pyers said.
"That's why I said ten meters was the minimal acceptable height. At the south gate, we saw them climb on the backs of other dinosaurs to breach the barriers, and we don't know if there are even larger creatures out there. I'd like to see the wall's foundation designed to support a wall of thirty meters, but we need only raise it to fifteen unless we find a need to extend it higher."
"Thirty meters will require a considerable foundation," Lt. Commander McCloud said. "And we'll need to manufacture some sort of bonding material such as cement."
"I know where a deposit of limestone is located," Lt. Rimes said. "We could make a form of cement using crushed limestone and clay. It's going to be a bit of work crushing the limestone, but we can do it using the forge's trip hammer and the mill's grinding stone."
"I never said it was going to be easy," Admiral Vroman said. "But I feel it's necessary to guarantee the safety of everyone in the camp. We lost sixteen people to the last attack. I don't want to lose another crew member in that way. There're only two passageways into this valley and this is the one we must address first. Come spring we'll start work on the South Pass wall so it will be ready before their fall migration."
"We can do it, sir," Captain Lindahl said.
* * *
"Trader Vyx is here, Admiral," Jenetta heard from her com unit as she worked at her desk. He requests a few minutes of your time."
"Send him in, Lori," Jenetta said to the com unit.
As Vyx entered the room, Jenetta stood to greet him. "Welcome back, Trader. It's good to see you again. It gives me an opportunity to personally thank you for the leads you provided."
"I haven't seen anything on the news services except coverage of a memorial ceremony. Did we find many Milori ships?"
"I've managed to suppress any mention of it, with a promise to the news services that they'll get a firsthand opportunity to witness a story a hundred times better in the not-too-distant future. They're contacting everyone they've ever met on the base trying to learn what I'm alluding to, but so far they haven't found out, or released anything about the attacks. I couldn't possibly keep them from reporting on the memorial ceremony, but they only reported it as resulting from a run-in with unidentified, hostile forces. As to finding the Milori ships, the operation was extremely successful. We located fifteen of their best warships and only one managed to escape capture. From what I saw on the videos, that ship won't be participating in any battles for quite awhile. It's amazing that it was even able to get away."
"Fifteen? Half the force left behind? That's wonderful, Admiral. I guess it was worth losing my ship."
"Your ship? What happened?" Jenetta asked, concern obvious in her voice because she thought the agents might have had their covers blown. "Was anybody hurt?"
"No, no injuries. Not to my team anyway. We were away, trying to pick up more information in the other colonies on Scruscotto, when a group of Tsgardis tried to enter my ship. They found enough body parts for nine, but information I've received since leads me to believe that quite a few more died. They must have been carrying a bomb intended for placement aboard my ship and it detonated when they triggered my trap. The damage from the explosion was considerably greater than what could have occurred from the explosive charges I had rigged. Nevertheless, I let people believe it was entirely from my charges. I doubt anyone will tamper with a ship of mine in the near future."
"Tsgardi? Do you suspect they were working for the Raiders? Has your cover been blown?"
"I'm speculating they were Recozzi's relatives, out to settle the blood feud. Nineteen of them won't have to worry about it anymore."
"I'm glad. Not that the Recozzi tribe is after you, but that you weren't injured and that your cover appears to be intact."
"I'm sure that many people on Scruscotto believe me to be providing information to Space Command, but only as an informant rather than an agent. To anyone who asks, I openly admit I despise the Milori so much that I would happily provide information on their movements in our space for free, so I'm happy to accept a few credits for doing it. Most people I meet share that sentiment and know I've never informed on their smuggling activities."
"It's a narrow line you walk."
"All part of the job. And speaking of the job, I need a ship to continue mine. I thought you might fix me up with something from the stuff you've confiscated."
"Sure, we've got plenty; so many that we don't know what to do with them all. The base is filled with them and we have a secure farm in orbit that contains another large group. Take your pick."
"I need one as large as possible, but still able to land on a planet or moon. The Scorpion was ideal."
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