"Certainly of most civilizations that come to mind. But little is known of the Kroerak," Jonathan said. "Put in human terms, we see quite a lot of evidence of a pre-bronze age civilization."
"You see evidence of human activity?" I asked.
"To attribute this information to humanity is perhaps optimistic. We are seeing activity by sentient beings that include agriculture," he said.
"From these scans?" I allowed myself to feel some hope.
"Yes, Captain Hoffen. The resolution is sufficient to identify land patches that have been cleared for growing. Ada Chen's positioning has allowed us to identify light sources that we do not believe are formed naturally," he said. As he spoke, the forward vid-screen showed fuzzy square patches of ground. On a second display, dots of light spread across a region that I had no size reference for.
I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting, but this certainly wasn't it. "I suppose we should check it out in that case. Marny, any reason not to start a burn toward the planet?"
"I'll negotiate a plan with Ada," she replied. "So far, we're not picking up any bogeys."
I busied myself with the details filling in with regard to the planet. The data showed a slightly richer oxygen environment than a human would need, 0.95g and a climate that was warm and humid, at least where Jonathan had detected agriculture. There was surface water, although not to the same degree as Earth, and there were active storms. All in all, from a human perspective, it was about as perfect a place as I could imagine. I was still cautious, knowing that was how initial settlers had seen Grünholz. First impressions really should be discounted.
The trip toward K-A0292X-2 remained relatively quiet, at least for the next several hours. It was when we were five thousand kilometers from the smaller of the two moons that things really got interesting.
"Cap, we've got a problem," Marny said.
A red outline showed on the horizon of the moon as a battleship-sized ship broke free from orbit.
"Ada. Combat burn, evasive," I ordered and pulled on my combat harness.
The ship didn’t look like any I'd ever seen. It resembled a badly misshapen, flattened potato with stumpy, organic growths across the surface. Even more peculiar was its flight orientation. The monstrosity was sailing horizontally, or sideways. It wasn't as if, in space, shape had as much of an impact on performance as it did with atmospheric ships, but form often intimated function. In Intrepid's case, we were long and narrow, created for a hit-and-run type mission. I couldn't imagine what this giant flying spud's function might be, although I had a suspicion I wasn't going to like it.
"Should we separate?" Tabby called on the tactical channel.
"Not yet," I said. "I want to see what's going on. If we start taking fire, make your best call."
"Roger that," she replied.
The AI warned us of the upcoming combat burn and I briefly felt sorry for anyone who hadn't taken the opportunity to strap in. Intrepid was running heavy with Hotspur strapped onto her belly and if we needed the extra punch, we could separate.
"Jupiter, that thing is ugly," Moonie said as the ship cleared the horizon and made way for us. There was no question it intended to intercept us on our path to the planet. For a ship that out-massed us by a factor of twenty, it was making good time.
Show delta-v.
Ada couldn't completely arrest our forward momentum toward the planet, but she did have options that would send us across the opposite side of the moon and away from the spud-ship racing toward us. Maneuverability was one of the joys of the frigate and the arcs on her navigation map showed we could easily swing aside and cross behind the moon. Our attacker would lose all advantage once we did, but they could still take some shots at us before we reached cover.
"Incoming fire," Marny announced.
The unidentified ship had fired a barrage of fast moving projectiles from the knobby-looking out-growths. Their timing had been perfect; their window to fire, shrinking.
"Separate, Tabbs," I said. "Take evasive!" It would be a dangerous maneuver while we were in combat burn.
My order wasn't necessary. Tabby and Nick had already seen the hail of projectiles and peeled away from Intrepid's underside. The gain in acceleration was significant as the two ships separated.
Ada seemed to surf the wave of destruction, spinning the ship at the last moment, utilizing the forward section once again to shield the more valuable engines. The ship shuddered from the impact of projectiles.
"Hull status, Moonie," I said.
"Still holding. If we hadn't been running all out, it would have been a different story," he replied.
"What were they?" I asked.
"Basically, they were spears," he replied. "Just really fast moving. If we make it out of this, we'll be able to collect some. Sensors show we have a number of them stuck in our hull."
"Nick, status."
"We're good. We jumped in behind you when the wave passed," he said. "So much for arriving unannounced, eh?"
"Yeah, frak," I said. I checked our delta-v with the enemy. We were still running at a full combat burn and our delta-v was ratcheting up quickly. "Ada, we can probably back it off some. They won’t catch us anytime soon."
"Give me one more minute?" she asked and flicked a prediction curve onto the forward display. We were still within reach of another salvo of projectiles.
"Roger that," I said.
***
"What do we do now?" Tabby asked.
We'd gathered the command team in the bridge conference room.
The ship we'd come to believe as Kroerak had given up chase after an hour. We slowed our retreat and they were staying visible. It seemed a clear message – Stay Away.
"I want a look at that planet," I said. "There's no way they can land that ship. I say we take Hotspur in and check out a few of those spots Jonathan located. Have you any updates on the initial scans?"
"Our sensors show a significant agricultural civilization, mostly restricted to the southern continental landmasses," Jonathan added.
"Define significant," I said.
"Our best estimate is several thousand sentient beings spread out over ninety thousand square kilometers," he answered.
"Why would they be so spread out?" Nick asked immediately.
"It is by design," Jonathan said.
"How do you know that?" I was skeptical. I'd seen much of the data from the sensors and they were making assumptions I didn't feel were supported.
Jonathan flicked a map to the conference room's vid-screen wall. A perfectly laid out grid of dots appeared, overlaid with a topographical map I hadn't seen before. "We have the benefit of a constant feed from the sensors. This civilization was planned by an advanced species with a view from space. This level of precision would be impossible for the technology we've been able to detect from the planet's inhabitants."
"Just what I need. Another Nick in my life," I said sarcastically. Jonathan looked at me quizzically, but I wasn't about to explain. I understood it was my job to sound like the idiot in the room, but it wore on me some days. "You're implying the inhabitants aren't Kroerak."
"A reasonable assumption. In our estimation, the only reason a more advanced species would go to the trouble of planning such a technologically inferior civilization would be if they wanted to control that population."
"I don't understand what the Kroerak gain," Ada said.
"Humans reproduce more frequently than most sentients," Jonathan said. "You also have one of the strongest drives for survival of any species we've encountered."
"To what end?" Ada asked. "I thought you said you didn't know if those settlements were populated by humans."
"It is a sensitive conversation," Jonathan said. "But we believe there is sufficient evidence that we are looking at human populations."
"Sensitive? Say what you think is going on," Ada said, starting to get annoyed. "Shading the truth has no place here."
Nick leaned forward, breaking line of sight between Ada and Jon
athan. "What Jonathan is trying not to say is they think the people are the product of the agriculture, you know… like livestock."
"That's ridiculous," Ada said, slapping the table. "There have to be a million better animals you can raise for that purpose."
"Is it?" I asked. "What animal is better at adapting? Look at the population of Earth and Mars for that matter. Given time, we fill the space available."
"I'm going to be sick," Ada said quietly and sat back in her chair.
"They'd have to take precautions against them organizing," Marny said. "The larger the population, the more danger the Kroerak would have."
"What could pre-bronze age people do against Kroerak warriors?" Tabby asked. "That’s got to be why they're so spread out."
"Any reason to expect Kroerak sentries?" I asked.
"Yes. We believe they are strategically located," Jonathan said, highlighting five locations. "There is evidence of transportation paths between these hubs." A pentagon shape formed as lines were drawn between the newly highlighted security installations.
"So we pick a settlement that's as far from those spots as possible," I said.
"We recommend one of these," Jonathan said, highlighting three settlements at the edge of the map he'd constructed.
"Done," I said. "Ada, while we're gone, you're in charge. If we don't return for some reason, you need to get out of here and tell someone. Our lives aren't nearly as important as this information."
"Don't talk like that, Liam," she said. "Besides, I'll have Marny."
"Not this time," Marny said. "I'd like to come along, Cap. We'll not be mixing it up with that ship and you'll need me on the surface if things turn south."
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Aye, Cap. If Ada does end up in a slug-fest, Baker and the crew will do what needs doing," she said. "I don't mean to take anything away from them, but it'd be hard to miss that big ugly."
"Any naysayers?" I asked, looking around the table. Ada looked uncomfortable, but she bore the responsibility I'd placed on her.
"Just like old times, eh?" I asked as the four of us walked aft.
"Quick stop," Marny said, opening the door to the armory. She handed Tabby and me heavy pistols. They were thirty percent bigger than the largest flechette I enjoyed carrying.
"What gives?" I asked as she closed the armory and we continued aft.
"About as illegal as they come," she said. "These are true slug throwers and you can reload with the 816 ammo pack. Never hurts to have another option."
I wasn’t sure about this. "We don't even know if the 816s are going to break the Kroerak shells."
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Tabby interjected. "We don't even know if there are Kroerak or if there are even any humans down there. It's been one hundred seventy-five years since they were taken from Thren's Rest."
I strapped the pistol into place and watched as Marny strapped on the ancient katana blade she'd received from Anino. "Why are you bringing that?"
"Only weapon I've tried that's sharp enough to pierce Kroerak exoskeleton. Nano blades don't work," she said.
I dropped my head. "My goal is to avoid fighting."
"Aye, Cap, as is mine," she said as we worked our way through the airlock of Hotspur.
Engage silent running, I commanded arriving on the bridge. Disengage docking clamps. I pulled back on the flight stick and gently separated from Intrepid.
"Happy hunting," Ada transmitted, knowing we wouldn't be able to respond. "Come back in one piece please. We're counting on you."
"Nick, lay in a course that takes us as far around that damn potato as we can get," I said. Normally, when sailing silent, we didn't have much in the way of sensors, but with Intrepid periodically broadcasting updates, we had no trouble keeping track of the large ship.
"Yup."
A navigation path appeared on the forward vid-screen. It would take us five hours to reach the planet as we had to lose all of the speed Ada had been gaining in the opposite direction. Such was travel in space.
While the trip was tense, it turned out to be uneventful and we reached the planet's atmosphere on the opposite side of our enemy’s ship.
"Either they aren't tracking us or we're too small for them to be concerned," Tabby summarized as I pushed Hotspur into the atmosphere. Regardless of the circumstances, I enjoyed the sensation of flight as Hotspur's wings caught and we glided along with the air currents.
The first part of our plan was to make a high altitude fly-over and map the settlements Jonathan had mapped from long distance. At fifteen thousand meters, we were close enough that our passive sensors were able to resolve previously muddy detail.
"Not much of a civilization," Tabby said as we inspected the video of mud and stick, round-topped houses. The size of the openings were the right size for humans, although none had yet entered our sensor’s field of vision.
"The Ophie are more advanced," I added. "How could people as technologically superior as Belirand be pushed back so far?"
"I'd guess it isn't by choice, but we don't know those are human settlements," Nick said.
"Let's get loaded up. Nick, you have the helm," I said. "We'll jump from five thousand meters."
"Agreed," he replied. "Be careful, Marny."
"I've got it, little man." She mussed his hair and walked from the bridge to the lift.
I'd done a lot dumber things than jump out of a perfectly good spaceship and so the idea didn't strike me as particularly bad as we lowered the ramp and one by one, jumped out. It was in this environment that Anino's grav-suit was at its most efficient. With the strong gravitational fields of the planet, the suits easily counteracted the free fall.
"I've found a spot to set down," Nick said over point-to-point communications. "Twenty kilometers north. Looks clear."
"Be safe, little man," Marny said as the three of us formed together in free fall. We'd done enough jumps with mechanized suits that we preferred to stay within a few meters of each other as we fell. The grav-suits allowed for considerably more control over the arc-jet based mechanized suits and we were counting on a safe landing.
"I'm getting movement," Tabby said. My HUD showed a human figure carefully moving between two of the dwellings. The figure's movement was slow, finally stopping. In response, Marny slowed our descent and flipped the tactical view to infrared. Half a meter in front of the figure, a pin-prick of red widened into a saucer shape, about a hand's breadth in width and quickly turned orange and then yellow.
"I'm guessing no indoor plumbing," I said, wryly.
"Break for the ridge," Marny instructed. The plan was for us to hunker down on the ridge in the foothills of the mountain range that ran along the eastern border of the settlements.
"Copy that." We'd gathered as much information as we could during our fall and landed under a shelf of rock. Visually, we were hidden from satellites, even though we had seen no evidence of them. Marny was all about taking maximum precautions and making as few assumptions as possible.
"I'll set the sensors and then I'd say we'll want to get comfortable." She reiterated the plan we'd worked up.
As it turns out, comfortable and rocky ledges aren't particularly synonymous and I wondered how I was going to make it through the entire day as we settled in, waiting for the system's star to rise on the alien horizon.
"More movement," Tabby said. We'd had several glimpses of movement, but never a full sighting. At five thousand meters, our sensors easily dialed in on the village of five mud-covered dwellings.
"That's a human," she added unnecessarily as a poorly dressed, rail-thin woman exited, carrying a clay pot. We watched in fascination as the woman carried the pot to the edge of the village and dumped the contents onto the dusty ground, using a tool to cover the material.
"That's not," I said as a meter-tall creature with short, spindly legs, hunched back and large frog-shaped head exited next. Its blue and green coloring and oversized, black eyes sitting atop its head were a perfect match
for the Norigans that Jonathan had shown us. As the woman approached, they communicated with a series of hand signals.
"Norigans," Marny said. "Living with humans. Wonder what that's about."
"Look at him," Tabby said as a dark-brown skinned man exited the same hut. We watched as he joined the Norigan at a central fire pit where the two worked together to restart the glowing embers into a small fire. The girl we'd first seen, joined them after filling a pot with water and handing it to the much larger man.
Marny handed meal bars to me and Tabby. "Breakfast time."
In all, there were fourteen villagers. The tall brown-skinned man, the Norigan and the boy we'd seen relieving himself the night before were the only non-female residents. If there were more Norigans, we didn't see them. As they moved through the day, they set to work in the terraced hills around the village, growing what my AI believed to be a plant similar to rice. A few other well-tended plants grew along the edges of the watery terraces.
"No kids. No old people," Marny observed. "And almost no men."
We continued to spy on the villagers. It was like watching an old documentary vid depicting life as it was before civilization, only these weren't actors.
"No sign of Kroerak," I said as the sun finally set behind the mountain, leaving us in darkness.
"What would be the point?" Tabby asked. "They're barely surviving down there."
"Looks like they're turning in for the night," Marny said. "We're a go in five minutes." We were on a communications blackout and had set a time table with Nick.
"Marny, you'll set up on top of that hut?" I asked, just recapping the plan. She would stay outside as Tabby and I attempted to introduce ourselves to the village residents.
"Aye, Cap," Marny agreed as we glided across the rocky plain that separated us from the village.
Landing gently next to the dwelling, I turned up my light amplification as I stepped into the door frame of the pathetic dwelling. I was hardly prepared for what we were presented with. On the ground lay a huddled mass of sleeping humans, covered by little more than dirty off-white blankets. Toward the front, the broad, blue and green frog-shaped Norigan’s head rested intimately over the bare chest of the well-muscled brown-skinned man.
Give No Quarter (Privateer Tales Book 10) Page 20