by David Buck
‘Well with regards to the Tilmud I did speak with a Cephrit trading ship three weeks ago that stated……’
Omerio began to relax and enjoy himself as he carefully went through his latest report and the two senior Barus officers either kept silent or exchanged long and searching glances with one another. Afterwards the three officers started to plan the deployment of the squadron, and Omerio felt that any preconceived ideas the two flag officers had arrived at earlier were readily abandoned. He sat back and ate his meal as the finer points of the deployment were devised, and debated back and forth between Baredio and Stiderio.
***
The Tilmud lieutenant had the presence of mind to avoid looking at Commander Giruldesec as he anxiously gave his report across the bridge.
‘Commander, the sensors show well over two hundred Jerecab frigates and support ships coming from the entry point back towards the Posient systems.’
Commander Giruldesec did a quick calculation on the numbers of Jerecab ships listed in the report and swore softly. His bridge crew gave no sign of having heard him as they kept their powerful heads over the consoles they were each operating. Each of the large Tilmud males lay semi prone in their acceleration couches with restraint straps securing their powerful and spined bodies. The commander quickly looked at the overview of the system before he gave an order to the communications officer.
‘Lieutenant, place a call to the Jerecab formation immediately.’
The main view screen remained blank for several minutes as the message crossed the star system at light speed. Giruldesec paid attention as the view screen finally came online to show an older Jerecab officer sitting silently calmly in his command chair. Without further preamble, he now bowed low and intoned both a formal greeting and a warning to the Jerecab Admiral.
‘My greetings and admiration to you, great Jerecab Admiral Lord Baunrus, I am Commander Giruldesec. Your magnificent fleet is outside your territory and is now well inside the control zone for the former Dradfer colonies. As we are custodians of these star systems we order you to immediately withdraw your ships to your own areas of space.’
Giruldesec straightened slowly from his bow and looked the Jerecab Admiral in the eye as the message again crawled across to the system. He flinched inside as he calculated how long his squadron of twelve frigates would last in a fight with so many Jerecab ships. The screen eventually started to move as the Admiral’s response in an accented Tilmud language mixed with a series of wheezes and coughs, which Giruldesec recognised as desultory laughter that came clearly across the line.
‘Commander Giruldesec, at least you offer the correct form of respect and this has saved the lives of you and your squadron crew today. Now be gone from this star system while my good humour is still evident. The time of your race’s mastery of this region of space has passed and we will do as we see fit with these worlds.’
The screen went black and Giruldesec wasted no time in getting his meagre squadron as far from the Jerecab armada as possible. After two more hours, brief coronas of light engulfed the Tilmud frigate squadron as they made the hyper drive jump to the safety of the next system. He sat back in his command chair and considered how the state of their affairs had deteriorated to such an extent that the Jerecab could drive a Tilmud squadron away without a fight. He resolved to soon talk to his uncle, the senior squadron commander, who was commanding the remnants of three Tilmud squadrons in another star system nearby.
***
Chapter 4
Grant Stoneham crossed the bridge of his ship with casual ease as he glanced at the contents of the sensor report on his data tablet. He took a seat at his expansive command console and sat back to run his fingers through his jet black hair, a legacy of Chinese ancestors on both sides of his family. He remembered with pride his older relatives telling him of the founding of the Barede colony, and how one of the first Lieutenant Governors, Douglas Stoneham, had married a Chinese girl and started a dynasty of first merchants and later fleet officers. His large armed freighter, the Emerald Sky, was steadily moving further into the new star system after their last hyper drive jump and Grant looked across the bridge at his officers. He now gave a precautionary order and sought to verify what he could see.
‘Well we are definitely well away from any Maveen areas of interest from what I can see of this system. I would expect that as we are over three thousand light years from Barede. We need to stay as far away as possible from the planets themselves as we progress into the system. Now just what have we got ourselves into with this system I wonder…’
Grant sat back and waited patiently as the incoming data confirmed the harsh nature of the star system. He knew that their latest trade run had been cancelled and he had set about undertaking unsanctioned exploring with a view of finding a decent series of asteroids to mine. The remote star system they had chosen was all the more interesting because it was close to a direct line between Earth and Barede across twenty thousand light years of space. Gayle Anders, a mining engineer and also his fiancée, carefully spoke as she evaluated the sensor information streaming into her own console.
‘Grant, the outermost world is like Neptune to within a few percent and that includes the light flux values they are getting from the hotter F class star. The planet orbits further out than Neptune by about ten percent in this system. A large asteroid belt orbits inside the outer planet where Saturn would be in our own system.’
Olav Hendrickson looked up from his science console and fixed Grant with a long look of concern before he spoke.
‘Grant, there is some reference to independent races that are hydrogen breathers for worlds this size, but they are rated as unknowns. The Maveen references in our databases are scanty and they discourage us from making contact.’
The Emerald Sky continued to make her way into the star system over the next several hours, but was careful to keep a distance from likely ambush points. Eventually Gayle started to speak again as the worlds further inside the system revealed more information to the ship’s passive scanners.
‘The inner worlds consist of a hot Jupiter around Venus’s distance, and two smaller Mars sized worlds in the habitable zone further out.’
Gayle’s shoulders slumped momentarily as she continued in a subdued manner.
‘Skipper, they are both airless as a moon which is strange for planets of their size. Also none of the planets in this system have any large moons, which is also strange.’
Olav looked at the sensor data again and made an observation about the massive asteroid belt.
‘Well I am seeing a lot of large and irregular masses in the asteroid belt. The mass distribution is lopsided though, as if a planet is still forming. However the rest of the system is fully formed and the age of the star, while still young, would argue against this process still occurring.’
Grant was making his own assessments even as he took into information his crew was providing. He felt a chill as considered the ramifications of the asteroid belt and gave his own report.
‘Well the mass of asteroids appears to be graded out with masses of ice asteroids further out, and lower numbers of heavier asteroids of iron and nickel closer to the centre of the cluster. Olav, do you have a mass estimate in the cluster yet?’
Olav did not reply immediately as he continued to scan the information in front of him. Grant and Gayle were both used to his mannerisms and they were in no particular hurry at any rate either. Eventually he sat back and gave both of them another worried look as he spoke.
‘Well I show a total mass not far short of the outer planet, so roughly that of Neptune again. However this does make sense from a planetary science perspective as the outer planet should have either collected or ejected most of the mass over an extended period. It is almost like there was a planet here beforehand and it was destroyed.’
Grant wasted no time as he immediately ordered the Emerald Sky to alter course to leave the system. As the ship altered course still well outside the orbit of t
he fourth and outermost planet, Gayle suddenly let out a shrill scream of terror and yelled her warning across the bridge, even as the view on the main screen was changed.
‘Grant, we are being followed by a large ship of unknown origin, the vessel cleared the outer planet while we were busy looking at the asteroid field. The ship is accelerating heavily and is on an intercept course.’
Grant ordered the ship to emergency speed as the freighter now tore out of the star system. He was already regretting the decision to bring his ship here as the stern cameras showed a silver globe overhauling their ship at an impressive rate. Olav spoke again as he gave the parameters of the ship.
‘The alien ship is pulling eight gravities of acceleration and will overhaul us in about twenty minutes. I estimate it is over two kilometres across and it is round. Tentatively identified as a Sspol heavy cruiser based on our limited information from the Maveen.’
After a further fifteen minutes and with the alien ship already nearly alongside, Grant gave a series of orders as he considered how they would survive this predicament. For some reason all the crew were now reporting bad headaches and he had Olav working on this issue as well.
‘Helm, slow the ship to safe cruising speed, no point in overloading our engines. Gayle, please keep all weapons powered down and our weapons tracking systems offline. We do not want to upset this unknown race any more than we possibly already have at this stage.’
The view screen speakers gave a screech of noise as Sspol cruiser attempted make communications; however the visual screen remained blank. Grant had the presence of mind to speak clearly and slowly as the screech faded.
‘Greetings race of Sspol; we are humans from the human colony of Barede and are new to this area of space. We apologise and seek to withdraw from our trespass into your colony system.’
Grant and his bridge crew sweated nervously through the long minutes as the message was transmitted back to the Sspol ship. Further long minutes dragged by as they anxiously waited for a response which was not forthcoming. Olav now spoke quietly as they all continued to await a response.
‘Captain, the Sspol cruiser is itself decelerating to match our own speed as they draw alongside. The ship is down to three gravities and still decelerating.’
Grant in as many minutes yet again reconsidered the wisdom of coming to this star system. Another squeal of noise only erupted from the main view screen and this time Grant thought there was some alien words of an unknown language embedded in the message. Also the bridge crew was reporting an increase in the pain of their headaches and Olav offered further conjecture at this point.
‘The headaches are possibly an alien contact attempt or a weapon, or both. I do not know what injuries they have caused us using this method, but I for one will be glad when they stop.’
Grant now gritted his teeth and pushed back in his mind at the headache. He also formed a desolate strong feeling in his mind that he was experiencing strong pain and asked for it to stop. He had a sensation of momentary surprise and then alarm before the pain in his head subsided quickly. Gayle now looked across at him in wonder as she spoke.
‘For a brief moment I could sense all our minds on this ship and then a presence nearby. I also experienced their surprise and alarm at what ever you did do just then. It must be a mind device for communications.’
Grant shook his head and looked across at the open mouthed Olav, who quickly recovered and now gave an update on the location of the alien ship.
‘Grant, the ship is alongside us and maintaining position. I see no signs of weapons aboard the cruiser, but I would recommend extreme caution.’
Grant massaged his temples in relief as the pain subsided and another shrill blast of noise erupted from the speakers from the Sspol ship. This time he though the words resembled Trader or Cephrit as there was chirrs and rasps present in the message. Anxiously he attempted to remember his often ignored Trader language sessions on Barede and now he spoke clearly the same message he had spoken earlier.
‘Greetings race of Sspol; we are humans from the human colony of Barede and are new to this area of space. We apologise and seek to withdraw from our trespass into your colony system.’
He paused for a moment and clearly uttered what words and phrases of Trader he could remember from long lessons many years ago, with the translation in English shortly afterwards.
‘y po Grant une de human plime Barede. y po u arrac pi huine lu fowe. I am Grant from the human colony Barede. I am a believer of life and peace.’
A brief shrill message again came through from the Sspol cruiser before it went silent again for several long minutes. Olav was in the meantime looking at his sensors and he stifled an oath even as he gave an estimation of what he could now see.
‘Grant, there is another smaller vessel trailing us now and it appears to be a Maveen gate ship with several probes docked to it. This is interesting as the Maveen and Sspol are supposedly ancient enemies.’
Several long minutes transpired as the Maveen ship got closer to their position, before it slowed still some distance away and two Maveen probes undocked from the outside of the ship. After another short period of time expired, Grant found himself speaking with the senior Maveen. He was then even more surprised when he realised which particular Maveen was speaking to his ship.
‘This is Maveen Earth lead probe to the human ship. You will identify yourselves and know that you are in trespass of a new colony belonging to our friends the Sspol race.’
Grant began a frantic series of apologies as he stepped the two Maveen probes, held in high regard by all colonists, through both the motivation and the sequence of events that had led to their presence in the system.
Well over an hour transpired as the Maveen now spoke amongst themselves and then the waiting Sspol cruiser. Eventually the Maveen Earth probe addressed an anxious Grant and his crew once again.
‘Very well, your presence here is accepted by the Sspol under the following very limited conditions.’
***
Grant Stoneham listened as the Maveen Earth probe spelt out the conditions for human access to the Sspol colony system of Arranen. They would only be allowed to mine the system for an extended period before they would be asked to leave. The creation of bases and colonies was expressly forbidden and they would maintain a distance of five million kilometres at all times from the new Sspol world.
The ever patient Maveen deflected questions from the humans regarding the origins of the massive asteroid field. The probe also evaluated how accurate the Maveen predictive systems had been in identifying the humans would eventually arrive here, despite earlier warnings not to roam too far from Barede.
The Sspol envoy, Drannep, had also been accurate in directing them here earlier, even if the new world was not yet suitable for settlement by Sspol standards. The envoy also wanted the probe to advise the humans exactly about the specifics of their involvement. The Maveen probe only hoped this would build a worthwhile but distant relationship with the humans over an extended period for the Sspol. The humans eventually reached the edge of the star system and their ship departed the system in a brief flash of light.
The two probes later docked again with their gate ship as they reached the outskirts of the system and rejoined two other gate ships that had remained cloaked and undetectable. On the Sspol cruiser, Drannep framed two careful acknowledgements and a couple of questions, as the last two Maveen gate ships uncloaked and slowly arrayed themselves at a small distance on opposite sides of the larger ship.
‘Reconciled and grateful we are for the Maveen; the new world you delivered is most suitable and we will colonise it in a few hundred years. We keep our strength and our fuel; the travel methods you provide are helpful. The humans are short of life span but keen to pack much into their lives; does this young race bear further watching? The cargo we carry is useful; we leave for the secluded system and our ancient friends?’
The Earth probe thought through the nuances of the envoy�
��s comments for several seconds before it answered equally as carefully. For the probe was now aware that the literal communications methods of the Maveen had been a prime cause of the now ended conflict with the Sspol. The emphasis of the envoy’s message was gratitude in the acknowledgements, and the probe was aware of both caution and impatience in the two questions.
‘Envoy we are honoured to be helpers to the Sspol; the new world corrects the actions of the Zronte, and our travel assistance gives us valuable time to realise our shared goals. The humans are young and keen to proceed; like all young they need careful direction especially out here. I thank you for your assistance; indeed we do seek Altarebe and his father.’
The space around the Sspol cruiser turned into an opaque oval as the three Maveen gate ships easily formed a hyper gateway large enough to take the larger ship halfway across the galaxy. For point to point jumps the Maveen did not need a destination gate ship to be present if the jump was instantaneous. After the Sspol cruiser had vanished the gateway closed for several minutes before the forming a smaller gateway with only two gate ships around the gate ship carrying the Earth probe. The Maveen Earth probe now returned to evaluating the progress of other plans it was working on as the hyper gateway activated. The one key concept the probe was worried about was how far their new allies could be trusted with vital information, and the probe knew that little was more vital than the ancient queen and her daughters hidden in Earth’s oceans.
***
Emeria slowly strode up the hillside outside the complex on Trader Island and she noted that the space port on the northern tip of the island was busy again. She paused and watched as one of the new Trader lifters, much smaller than one of the big freighters, cleared the scrub line several kilometres away and accelerated into space. She knew that the smaller design using four stacked sneak ships was both safer and more economical than operating the larger ships regularly in the atmosphere. Their race had changed so much in the time amongst the humans she observed once again as she made her way to a favourite rocky ledge. The island was free of predators supposedly, but by habit Emeria ensured that her laser pistol was freed and sitting on the rock next to her as she liberated her data tablet from her outsized back pack.