Empty Casket Conspiracy (Terran Patrol Book 1)

by Lewis Dually

  Just then another of the Croiddan approached. He was a much younger Croiddan and he appeared to be angry.

  “They are not to be trusted. They have destroyed the Wade and stolen our future.” He said as he came near.

  Sprite started to intercept the young alien but Antwon beat him to it. He turned and slapped the young Croiddan across the face. He then lashed out at him in a foreign language. I didn’t understand the words but I understood the tone. He was giving the young Croiddan a good old fashioned butt chewing. Antwon finished whatever it was that he was saying to the young man and then turned to us and said.

  “Please forgive my son. He is young and unruly.”

  “I forgive him.” I replied. “Antwon, are you the leader of this group?”

  “I am head of the house of Adolphus, second elder of the circle, second to Kyreshaw the center of the circle. There are fourteen elders of the circle.”

  “Antwon we have a lot to discuss. Would you and your son accompany me to my office? The rest of your people will be well cared for here.”

  Antwon turned and spoke to his people in that same Alien language that sounded a lot like Italian to me. Then he turned to us and said. “Yes, we have much to discuss and time is short.”

  I looked at Walters who had been standing next to Sprite. “Prepare my ready room and have some food brought up for us and also for the Croiddan who are here.”

  “Yes Sir.” She said and hurried out to make the arrangements.

  “Commander Sprite, would you escort us to my ready room?”

  “Yes Sir. This way please.”

  As Sprite escorted the Croiddan to the ready room Leland and I hung back a bit to have a private chat.

  “Aren’t we supposed to take SPECIMENS for study? You’re treating them more like honored diplomats. What gives?”

  “I think we got them all wrong. They’re not the enemy. I think maybe they’re refugees and I don’t feel right about turning them over to a bunch of scientists for study. Albright said he did not want to deal with the fuss a captive alien would cause anyway so this way they’re not captives. As far as the Navy is concerned, all we want is that radio and we got it. The egg heads at the PDA want the Aliens and I don’t work for them. That’s why I ordered radio silence.”

  “Ok” Leland said. “I got your six. Can you believe I actually escorted their shuttle to U E Two? I remember that. When we got there I went into the station for dinner at the Bottom Hold Lounge. I could have walked right by one off them and never knew it.”

  “Could have.” I said. “I’m just wondering how many of them are here. He said there were fourteen elders on the circle. How many Croiddan does each elder represent I wonder?”

  “One way to find out. Let’s ask him.”

  As we walked behind Antwon and his son I realized I was now playing the role of diplomat. I had watched old movies about the consequences of screwing up diplomatic efforts between two groups. Wars both hot and cold had started that way. I had no diplomatic training but I did have good people and that would have to do. We took the long way to my ready room so one of those good people would have time to prepare it for our guests and she did a superb job. By the time we got there, Walters had laid out coffee, tea, sandwiches, cookies, and a silver serving dish of sugar cubes. She must have been paying attention on the shuttle deck when Antwon told Hirsch about their blood sugar. She had also brought in six leather chairs from the lounge and laid out a full silver serving set and was about to leave us but I motioned for her to stay.

  “Please join us.” I said to Antwon and motioned to the table. He and his son sat down on one side of the table while Leland and Sprite sat down on the other.

  It was obvious to me that Antwon and this young Croiddan were father and son. There was a very strong family resemblance not only in their looks but also in their movements. I could also see that their relationship was not unlike those of most humans. The father who was very proud and well dressed with his hair neatly trimmed. He reminded me of a preacher or a politician maybe. His son on the other hand wore clothes that were a bit shabby. I’m pretty sure it was intentional, it wasn’t that he was poor because he was wearing a very expensive watch. His hair wasn’t long but it had not been trimmed in a while. I also saw part of a tattoo protruding from his shirt sleeve. His father motioned for him to cover it up and the son rolled his head as he did so. No doubt he rolled his eyes too if only I could see anything in those great shiny black discs. I was reminded of a Great White I once encountered while diving off the Cape. All I could see in her black eyes was my own fuzzy reflection. That’ll get your heart pumping, believe me. If not for their eyes these two would blend in at any father son picnic in my home state of Tennessee. Sure they had unusual looking facial features but lots of folks look a little funny for one reason or another. Cover their eyes with sunglasses or those contacts they have and they could go anywhere anytime.

  I took my seat beside Leland and stifled the automatic reaction to retrieve my snuff can.

  “First let’s introduce everyone.” I said as I looked into Antwon’s shark eyes. “This is Commander Sprite of the US Navy Seals, and my aide Ensign Walters. You have already met Lieutenant Commander Fox. What is your son’s name?”

  “My son is Joydeus Adolphus.” Antwon answered.

  Then his son spoke. “Why did you destroy the Wade?”

  “I fired at the Wade because it fired at me. The shot was intended to disable the ship. I don’t know why it blew up. Our weapon was not that powerful.”

  Antwon spoke again. “We did not know the Wade attacked you. I am sorry. They were protecting us.”

  “Did the Wade know who you are, know that you are Croiddan?”

  “No. We have used the Wade to transport supplies to our outpost. We paid them very well to insure our safe passage. They thought we were smugglers.”

  Wanting to see just how honest he was going to be with me I asked. “Have you used other ships for this purpose?”

  “Yes. We use three ships. The other two are the Javelin and the Ramses.”

  “Did they know you had a subspace radio?”

  “No. That was a secret that we kept to ourselves. How do you know about that?”

  “It’s why we’re looking for you. We’ve intercepted your subspace radio transmissions. My orders are to make contact with you and acquire the technology.”

  That wasn’t strictly true but he didn’t need to know that.

  “Your son said we stole your future. What did he mean?”

  “We are preparing to leave your system. The Wade was carrying a cargo of fuel and oxygen for the ship we are building. It was one of five cargo deliveries needed for our journey. It also carried the main component to our reactor. We have depleted our supply of gold and cannot replace the parts and fuel we have lost.”

  I was hoping Leland or Sprite would get into the conversation but they just sat there like church mice. Finally Walters spoke up.

  “Why are you leaving?” she asked.

  The Croiddan looked at each other. Finally Joydeus turned to me and said. “We are hiding from the Krueg.”

  “The Krueg? What or who are the Krueg?” Leland asked.

  Antwon looked displeased with his son and turned his face to the wall.

  Joydeus looked at his father for a second and then back to us. “You must forgive my father. He is of the old ways and will not speak of this. The Krueg are a warrior people who invaded our planet one hundred and sixty four of your years ago. They destroyed our cities and enslaved our people. My father’s father was the captain of one of seven ships. They were off planet when the Krueg attacked and they fled to Earth. Our people are what you would call…..what’s the word……. conscientious objector?”

  “Pacifist?” Leland offered.

  “Yes. Pacifist. That’s it. Our people were pacifist. The old ones do not fight. Now that the Krueg are coming they want to run again, but my generation believe we should stand and fight.”

&nbs
p; Antwon spoke up again. “The young ones have been corrupted by your Hollywood. They watch your movies in secret and now they want to be a warrior people like the Krueg and Humans. We try to tell them but they will not listen. When two races with such capabilities for destruction meet there will be great slaughter. We tell them they are Croiddan and they must not fight. It is our way.”

  Joydeus turned to his father. “I was born in Alaska father, so were you. We may be Croiddan but Earth is our home! We must not abandon the humans. We must help them fight the Krueg.”

  Sprite finally got into the conversation. “You said the Krueg are coming? When, where and how do you know this?”

  This time Antwon answered. “When you made your first warp jump we knew the Krueg would come. They would pick up the warp signatures and it would lead them to Earth. We began preparing to leave then and it has taken us eleven years to build a ship for our journey to Trito. We have spies on our home planet that tell us the Krueg have sent a scout group to this system. It takes eleven months for them to travel here and they will arrive in six days. When they arrive they will report of the great riches on Earth and the Krueg will soon follow with an invasion. Their scout group came out of warp two days ago.”

  I sat forward in my seat. “Two days ago! Where?”

  “Their ships are at 305 mark 327 mark 9B. It will take six days for them to get here at full speed.”

  “How many ships?” Leland asked.

  “One battle carrier and six Destroyers.” Joydeus replied.

  “When you say battle carrier what do you mean? What does it carry?”

  “Troops. Most carriers have twenty thousand troops and one hundred shuttles to land them.”

  “How much do you know about the Krueg weapons and defensive capabilities?”

  Antwon looked down at his hands and said. “I cannot give you information that will lead to violence.”

  “Father!” Joydeus shouted. “The violence is coming. If you do not help them it will be a slaughter. We must help them.”

  Antwon turned his face to the wall again but Joydeus turned to me.

  “Some of us built ships to battle the Krueg but the old ones found out about them and took away our weapons. Their armor is strong enough to sustain several direct hits from the Krueg guns but not their blasters. Some of their weapons fire energy blasts and some fire projectiles. The hulls on our ships were designed to stop large projectiles but when we left Earth my ship was shot down by a bullet from a gun. It was not built to defend against such a small projectile. Our ships and the Krueg ships are armored with the same material.”

  “How thick is the armor on the Krueg ships?” I asked.

  “Our spies tell us the scout ships have armor that is ten inches thick. The battle ships have armor that is twenty inches thick.”

  I looked at Leland. “That new round I told you about can penetrate fifteen inches of their armor. We can take the scout ships but not the battle ships.”

  Joydeus leaned forward in his chair and asked “How can you know this?”

  “The ship you built, did it crash in Peru?”

  “Yes. Eleven years ago.”

  “We have it.” I said. “It’s a nice ship. The armor on this ship was built with the same metal. The Wade hit us with six of their five hundred millimeter shells and that armor stopped them from penetrating. After that we designed a shell that would penetrate that armor.”

  I looked at Walters. “We are going to step out for a moment. Would you serve our guests?”

  Walters stood and asked Antwon. “Do you like Tea?”

  “I will prefer Coffee, Thank you.” He replied.

  Sprite, Leland and I excused ourselves and stepped out onto the bridge.

  “So what do you think?” I asked.

  “Well,” Leland started. “I think we better alert the fleet and head off this scout group. Give them a strong show of force and let them know we aren’t push overs like the Croiddan.”

  “I agree.” Sprite said. “And I think we should do it before they get close to Earth and see what a rich planet we have.”

  “Yep” I said. “My thoughts exactly. But we don’t know enough about the Krueg just yet. Time is short and we have a lot to do here. Leland, I want you to take the radio we recovered and head to Earth. We need to get that thing fixed and start reproducing it. We need to get one on every ship and outpost we have and we need to do it in two days. We also need to get the arms works in Bethlehem to start turning out our new shells in quantity and figure out how to make a shot that will penetrate twenty inches of armor. I’m going to take the Croiddan to their outpost and see how much more I can learn from them. I want to talk with a few more of the younger Croiddan. I think Joydeus is being truthful but Antwon has already lied a couple of times.”

  “What did he lie about?” Sprite asked.

  Leland answered him. “He said the Wade didn’t know they were Aliens. They thought they were just smugglers. That’s total horse crap. These ships smuggle stuff all the time. If they get caught, they pay a fine and move on after we confiscate the goods. No big deal to them. It’s just the cost of doing business as far as they’re concerned. And there is no law against transporting people to the belt. Even if they were smugglers it wouldn’t matter because it’s the cargo that’s illegal, not the people.”

  “Exactly.” I said. “And if the Croiddan were wearing those eye lenses then we wouldn’t have noticed them anyway. The only reason for the Wade to fight and run was because they knew who the Croiddan were, knew we were looking for them and didn’t want to get caught giving aid to an Alien race. That’s not illegal either but it sure would tarnish their reputations. And they might not have realized it’s not a crime.”

  “Why do you believe the kid?” Sprite asked.

  “Because he’s too passionate about his cause to be lying, and I hope we’ll find more of that passion when I reach their outpost. Antwon chooses his words very carefully. At first I thought it was the language barrier but it’s not that. He speaks excellent English. He’s thinking very hard about what he says and that tells me he’s telling stories.”

  I looked at my watch. “Owens has had three hours with that radio. Let’s go see if he’s figured it out.”

  We left Sprite to baby sit our guests and Leland and I headed for engineering.

  “Do you really think the Croiddan can know about the Krueg armor?” Leland asked. “It’s been a century and a half since they escaped the invasion. That’s a lot of time for advancements in technology. A hundred years ago we were just breaking the sound barrier.”

  “I hope so. It’s not their armor that worries me. It’s their guns. Joydeus said they fired energy blasts. That could be a laser, plasma cannon or maybe even an EMP cannon. That last EM pulse put us dead in space for twenty four hours. What if they have a gun that shoots a directed EM pulse? I know it’s something we have tried to make and there is no way to defend against such a weapon.”

  Well…I’ve got this kid in engineering,” Leland offered. “He’s one of those egg head types. He’s only nineteen but he’s pretty sharp and he’s always spouting out new ideas, says things like, it’s so simple, why can’t they figure this out? I usually let it go in one ear and out the other but he has some crazy idea about capturing EM pulses.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Like I said, in one ear and out the other but my chief engineer seemed to think there was something to it. Something about space foam mixed with Metallic Hydrogen and Quartz dust and high volume capacitors.”

  I considered that for a moment. “That’s interesting. Our static drive rails have a Quartz core wrapped in a Metallic Hydrogen cylinder to separate the graviton wave pulses from the static plain. You say this kid is only nineteen?”

  “Yes. He graduated from MIT last year. I think he finished high school when he was fifteen or so. He wanted space duty and he is SWAFS certified, otherwise he would be stuck in some Navy research lab.”

  �
�Bring him over here and let’s try to get all these great minds working together for once.” I said as we walked into engineering and found Owens and Warren. They had the subspace radio opened up and were peering inside its cabinet. Owens was leaning on the work bench, jaw in hand and Warren was standing with his hands on his hips and brow furrowed.

  “You guys look perplexed.” I said. “How bad is the damage?”

  Owens lifted his head from its perch and said. “It’s not damaged at all. The only reason they couldn’t use it was they had no power source. The EM pulse didn’t hurt the radio. We think this devise requires a fifteen megawatt power supply and a dual prong antenna array capable of withstanding two thousand degree temperatures.”

  Warren turned and looked at the reactor output coils. “If we rig a strait runner from the output coils we can get the power but we have no way of regulating it. Too much and we cook the thing.”

  I knew where he was going so I finished for him. “And no other systems on the ship carry that much juice except for the drive rails. We just need to test the thing so what if we connect the drive rail power supply to it. Then we can control the power delivery through the propulsion regulators.”

  “That will work.” Warren agreed. “And the AM transceiver antenna will handle the heat. We can do this. But how will we know if it works? Who are we communicating with?”

  Leland looked at me. “Why not let the Croiddan use it to call home. They can let their people know they’re alright and that you are bringing them in, and we can test the radio and get a fix on their location.”

  “Works for me. You bring Antwon down to make the call and I will talk with Joydeus alone. I want to see what he says when his father is not listening. Chief, get this thing wired up and ready to test. And we’re bringing over….what’s his name?”

  “Seaman Lloyd.” Leland offered.

  “Lloyd. That’s it. He has an idea about protecting ships from EMP’s. I want you to work with him and see what you think.”