Esther asked Freeman to report as soon as the external systems, sensors and location monitors began functioning again, so they continued in silence until with a dramatic shudder the huge cargo ship began to emerge on the far side of the cloud.
The computer screens and viewing monitors burst back into life but it took the bridge crew a few seconds to focus on the data in front of them and it was Pixie who reacted first, “By the sacred heart, we are dead.”
Freeman hurried to adjust his sensors to find the cause of Pixie’s alarm, but Esther had already seen the problem on the giant viewing screen at the front of the bridge. Almost directly in front of them was the huge menacing shape of a star battle cruiser, the largest military spaceship allowed in the known universe. On either side of the dreadnought and spread out in a picket line were the escorting fighters.
Kyle and his group were still in position at the rear of The Moons and they had picked up the images from the bridge on the Annexe viewer. “It looks like we got a welcoming party,” spat Shiner.
“The question is …….., just who are they welcoming?” was Kyle’s response.
They did not wait long for an answer as Pixie had picked up a ship to ship message from the warship. “This is His Majesty’s Starship ‘Guardian’, Moons of Septimus you are now under our protection, pass through the picket line and heave to, please acknowledge.”
Esther looked at Freeman, “Are these the good guys?”
Freeman was beaming, “These certainly are the good guys,” the Guardian is the flag ship of the Berengian Triumvirate, they are my kin and we are now safe.”
The news quickly reached Kyle and his small band of defenders, who greeted it with whoops of joy. The four of them raced back to the bridge to join the celebrations and to see what would happen next. The Moons was now parked behind the Berengian picket and out of harm's way. All the Moons crew were on their feet and watching the central viewing screen. Freeman changed the view to focus on the cloud gateway and after a few minutes the pursuing pirate cutter nosed its way out. Kyle could only imagine the frantic activity on the bridge of that craft as they saw the Berengian fleet strung out in front of them but it was too late to escape. As soon as the cloud began distorting, fighters were despatched from the fleet to lie in wait and when the cutter had fully emerged it was immediately surrounded.
The pirate craft was invited to surrender or be obliterated and with no viable option it meekly fell into line to be escorted back to the fleet.
Safely locked to its mooring drone the Moons, survivors gradually drifted away from the bridge to shower rest and collect their thoughts. Kyle had showered and had changed into his lose green coveralls and was lying on his bed relaxing listening to vintage earth music of the ‘heavy metal’ variety, which he thought was appropriate for an engineer. There was a knock at the door and not bothering to get up he shouted “Enter.”
It was Bambi, holding a tray containing two steaming mugs of organic Kaffoo and an unopened bottle of Mephisto Visky, a cloned spirit drink. She was also in a fresh set of greens, with a forage cap covering her hair and shading her eyes.
“I thought we could celebrate our survival,” she said smiling sheepishly.
He was taken aback as they had hardly spoken over the last few days and didn’t want to say anything now which might break the moment, he liked Bambi, she was vulnerable, funny and great company the trouble was he also liked the unattainable Esther.
She put the tray down on the bedside cabinet and with a hot mug in each hand sat on the side of the bed, inviting Kyle to join her. He duly raised his legs and swung into position beside his visitor.
He took the nearest mug, due to its very hot temperature he just had a small sip and clutched it with both hands. He looked into Bambi’s blue green eyes, it felt very warm and natural which wasn’t just due the Kaffoo.
Bambi spoke first, “What are you going to do now?”
“You mean now this minute or once we make the first commercial port?”
“I know what’s going to happen now,” she laughed and picked up the visky, pressed the opener and poured very generous measures into their mugs.
He picked up on Bambi’s comment and could not help grinning like a fool. “Ok, so when we are back in port, we need to find out whether we can claim any salvage money for the Moons and that schooner. If we get a windfall I will buy back my service contract. I would like to go travelling and making up for lost time. Then if we don't get a bonus it will be signing on for another tour if I can land a berth. What about you?”
“I think you must have been reading my mind, any room for a travelling companion?”
“Only one as good looking as you,” and despite his previous doubts he was really pleased that Bambi was now showing not only interest in him but also a desire for together time.
Bambi had lighter skin than Kyle and he could tell she had coloured up after his last comment. Leaning her head against his shoulder they sat quietly enjoying the perfect moment.
Perfect moments don’t last and after what seemed a few seconds the comms console burst into life and an image of Freeman appeared. “This is a general announcement to the crew of the Seven Moons of Septimus, We have been invited by Admiral Ng of the Battleship Guardian to join him for dinner and a briefing. He has already sent one shuttle for our prisoners and the next one will be here for us in fifteen minutes. We are instructed to have our kit and personal effects stowed in backpacks, which should be left in our quarters together with our arms and armour. Finally we are to assemble in our clean greens outside Hangar 3 at 19.00 hours ship time.”
The image of Freeman dissolved from the screen and the bed-bound pair just stared at each other, Bambi looked crestfallen, “I was building myself up for a special night together, it’s just not fair.”
“Don’t worry Bambs we will have plenty of nights together soon,” reassured Kyle and he pulled her in for a lingering kiss. “OK, we have all of fifteen minutes left to get packed and spruced up, so get going and I’ll see you by the hangar, oh and let’s play it cool in front of the others for now, they’ll only make fun of us.”
Bambi reluctantly raised herself from the bed and made her way to her own quarters, she felt some elation that Kyle still reciprocated her feelings, and was sure that she was doing the right thing.
****************************
Kyle made his way to the transit hangar, Shiner and Buzz were already there leaning against the air lock door. As he got closer he could see Pixie and Freeman sitting on their air scooters a little further down the passage way.
He bundled into his two crew mates and gave the men a big man hug, “I hope they’ve got some fresh Kaffoo over there.”
“And decent beer,” said Buzz, Shiner grinning joined in with, “And beautiful navy ladies.”
The air lock warning light flashed red and the auto locks could be heard sliding into place to prevent the unwary walking into a vacuum. A klaxon gently blared out to announce the arrival of a navy shuttle craft.
“Anybody seen the ladies?” shouted Freeman.
As he spoke Esther came striding around the corner with Bambi in tow, they were laughing about something then saw Kyle looking at them, which made them laugh once more before Esther quietly said “Good, you are all here and I just want to say thanks to each one of you for getting us to safety, it needed all of us to play a part and we did it, yes we did it. We may well go our separate ways now and I needed to get that off my chest.”
The airlock lights went green and the doors opened to provide access to the brightly lit hangar where the admiral’s barge was waiting, its engine humming at a low pitch on standby for its impending return to its mothership.
Standing alongside the barge in two lines were twenty navy types in their dark blue uniforms and at their head was a female officer with two gold bands on her grey shoulder epaulettes.
“Fleet Lieutenant Garibaldi of HM Starship Guardian at your service. Where is Sub-Officer Fuentes?”
/> Esther pushed to the front of the Moons group and the Lieutenant could see the single Silver Star studs in the green collars of her flight suit, which indicated her Sub-Officer rank in the commercial fleet. Esther attempted a military salute but the Lieutenant just held out her hand and grasped Esther’s returning from the salute and gave it a hearty shake.
“You’ve had quite a time Sub according to our data from tracking beacons and assets beyond the cloud gates. There are also so few of you from two ships crews,” not expecting an answer the naval officer continued, “Admiral Ng wishes to meet with you and your crew urgently, you are all to join him for dinner at 20.00 ship time. When you arrive on-board the Guardian you will be escorted to your quarters and will probably have around half an hour to freshen up. Don’t worry about the Moons we will look after her,” and with that she marched her detachment off to take control of the ship.
Esther called her group together, “Right guys let’s get moving and stay smart, we want to do our old ships proud”. She led the way up the ramp of the admiral’s barge, Kyle made sure that he was last, just behind Bambi and as they neared the open door giving her trailing hand a quick squeeze, he was beginning to feel different about her and a lot of things now.
The flight to the Guardian was not going to take long, so Kyle sat next to Shiner on the double seats at the rear of the passenger cabin, rather than taking up the two seats as normal.
Shiner said what Kyle was thinking about earlier, “What are your plans Getaway, will you stay space side or get your feet on the ground?”
“That is the 64,000 credit question my friend. It seems to be getting dangerous out here and if we get a share of the salvage for the schooner and the Moons, then I’ll be looking to travel for a while before I buy a small farm back on Induria, close to my parents, with a large workshop and a couple of extra rooms for when you deadbeats drop by.”
“Are you planning to share this dream home with anyone we know?” Shiner smiled mischievously.
“That’s for me to know and you can buzz off.”
“Somebody call my name?” chirped Buzz from the seat in front
“Nobody asked for a fool,” Shiner joked and was promptly dug in the ribs hard by Buzz’s elbow, as he leant over the seat back.
“When you two girls have finished I am trying to get some beauty sleep,” said Kyle and got soundly shaken by both his mates.
When they arrived on the Guardian the group were met by an escort who marched them to individual quarters, segregated into male and female dormitories, which was standard Berengian military regulation.
There was just time for a quick freshen up, before they were collected by their minders and escorted to the Admiral’s suite, high up on the mighty starship’s outer levels. They were met at the dining room door by a white liveried hu-mechy, who bid them to take a seat around the large oval table. Place cards marked their seat and a group of four senior ship’s officers sat randomly dotted about between them.
So it was that Kyle, Esther, Bambi, Freeman, Shiner and Buzz sat awaiting the arrival of Admiral Ng. As he walked into the low-lit room the ship’s officers rose and stood to attention, then Esther and Freeman joined them followed by the others.
“Gentlemen and ladies please, please sit down, to our visitors I bid you welcome and we are really pleased to see you safe and well. My name is Admiral Ng, commander of the Guardian and Admiral of the Berengian First Fleet. We are aware of what ills you have suffered from our assets across the cloud and in due course we will be seeking more detail.
There are some strange things happening and your adventures are but a part of it, before we get down to some well-earned real food you may be interested in what we understand so far.” Without waiting for agreement the Admiral nodded to one of the sharp suited officers, who stood with his pane computer in hand, “Lieutenant Akimbe, IO of the Guardian at your service. We believe that the frontier worlds and zone are in great danger, the raided ships and missing crews are so far just a small taste of what is coming.”
The Lieutenant pointed his pane at the wall behind the admiral and an illuminated display began to scroll.
The Frontier incidents confirmed details:
1. Number of ships attacked - Eight.
2. Estimate of crew dead - Five Hundred
3. Number of crew missing or captured - Four hundred and Fifty
4. Number of prisoners over the age of 40 years - Nil
5. Attack initiator - Unknown vessel
6. Raiders point of origin - Chamtofi in the frontier zone
There then followed a holographic display generated by the pane and a miniature pleasure craft moved slowly over the table around three feet from the surface, then from nowhere a black spider shape materialised above the much smaller craft. Legs or antennae began to extend, with a flash from the end of these extensions the tiny craft below ceased its progress and the miniscule twinkling running lights were extinguished. There was then a growing brightness across the display, a blinding flash and the picture disappeared.
Kyle was fascinated by what he had seen and realized it was the schooner Papyrus which they had been watching. A short while later the display burst into life again and the Schooner was still hanging there, but the attacking craft had vanished. Another vessel came into view, which was much the same size of the Papyrus and it gradually positioned itself alongside the stricken vessel. There was another pirate craft probably a cutter by its shape, it was there for a while then moved off in the direction from which it had arrived. The display went smoky, then cleared and the holographic projection was over.
“Let’s eat,” the Admiral barked and at that the door opened, a procession of serving staff came into the room laden with the most glorious fresh food and variety of drinks.
In between the many servings the embedded Guardian officers were polite and attentive hosts, but the underlying questions about the Searcher and Moons exploits were noted by Kyle as being a bit too searching.
The table was cleared and all those seated were left with Kaffoo, spirits, fruit drinks or just plain water. All the ships officers rose on cue, bowed to their guests, saluted the Admiral then made their exit from the room.
Admiral Ng cleared his throat and rose from his chair, “Ladies and gentleman, I hope you have enjoyed your meal and our presentation earlier. Now we must get down to business,” and at that the green suited visitors looked at each other, starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. They were expecting a briefing on where they were to be repatriated and something was not right.
“Having experienced what you have as a group, you will not have been surprised by our little presentation but I am now going to tell you a massive secret which is potentially explosive.
The schooner that you kindly brought back to us, had been loaned to a young man called Morgan, who had arranged a romantic trip to view the Vistula nebula to impress his sweetheart Khadisha. As we know that trip did not end well and their parents, who incidentally disapproved of the relationship, are apoplectic.
What I have not told you is that the young man is Prince Morgan of Berengia the heir to the throne and the young lady is Khadisha West, who is the only daughter of the President of Alabaster. Friction already exists between our planetary groups due to joint claims on the mineral rights of the asteroid belt separating our worlds and the disappearance of the missing VIP’s are viewed suspiciously.”
“If you know that the pirates are holding all our people, your Prince and Khadisha why don’t you take the fleet to Chamtofi and deal with these villains?” Esther asked rising to the task.
Before the Admiral could answer, Freeman spoke up, “Is it the Treaty of Ceres?”
“That’s the biggest reason and for those that don’t understand its importance let me briefly explain. When the great exodus of Gaia was getting underway, the provisional governments of the new worlds met on the Orbital station at Ceres and came up with a charter that they agreed would apply to all new worlds.
1. Pl
anet settlers should limit their migration to within the boundary of the cloud gates.
2. New Worlds commit to a non-aggression pact for all time.
3. All emigrant groups that choose to settle worlds for ethnicity, religion or political polarisation must limit the worlds they settle to three.
4. Accepting the need to protect new populations and their commerce from threats domestic and external, defensive capabilities are allowed for each world but no settled planet can maintain more than one capital starship.
5. The independence of each planetary group is established forever with a prohibition on the establishment of federal or imperial government.
6. Those citizens of Gaia who cannot find a planetary group to join may explore beyond the cloud gates and will be free from intervention of the gated worlds on the proviso that each world remains independent and peaceful.
This means, that if we were bold enough to take the fleet we would be breaking the founding charter by attacking an independent world, which would lead to Berengia’s three worlds being ostracised by the other settled worlds. That is not the only reason though, we really have concerns about the source of the initial attacks and we cannot risk our own planets defence by deploying its main assets on the other side of the cloud gate. We have a great need for credible intelligence and we need more resources and require more time.”
Against this there is some room for manoeuvre using clause 6. There are around 450 prisoners who need rescuing as soon as possible and of highest importance are the Prince and Miss West, they must be located and freed unharmed.”
Now standing and looking in the eyes of each of the seven guests, Admiral Ng changed to a sombre tone. “I am going to ask you something you don’t want to be asked and I don’t want to ask it of you but, ………………….I want you to go back to Chamtofi!”
“Why us, it’s not fair, we won’t do it,” shrieked Bambi, whilst the others were just left stunned.
Kyle decided it was time to jump in and support his girl, “No disrespect Admiral but we are only 7 in number, a mixture of engineers and ships staff, we are not combat troops. What can we possibly achieve and just as important why should we put our necks on the block?”
Seeker of Moons (Cassidy's Command Book 1) Page 10