Book 7 of The traveler.

by Robin Miller

  I said to Owsee, "well, this is certainly convenient."

  Owsee, "yeah, but how tough are they? It's no good taking a bunch of cowards into battle."

  Storekeeper, "I've heard of these children of the Sands, from Voleon, they are not cowards. Their fighting skills are rather good, and though their ships are small they're strong. Do you hold their Stone of destiny?"

  I said, "as a matter of fact, I did give aid to a pair of Voleons that gave me a small stone as a token of their appreciation, but I didn't know it was a big deal." Storekeeper, " the Voleons are a proud people, and have always believed the Stone of destiny had a life of its own that could bring prosperity to their people. There are many interesting stories about events that happened around their Stone of destiny."

  I said, "well I guess I should be polite and introduced myself to them, perhaps they can help with our problem concerning the scavengers."

  So I sent a hail to the ships and told them I would meet with their representative on the docks. I didn't know how much I could expect from these people, but I would try to learn what they and their ships were capable of. I had a smoke while waiting for them to dock, just to take the edge off. I didn’t want to look nervous in front of the men I may be taking into battle, and the weed-bud from Laureate would mellow out anybody. There was, of course not enough room for the 100 ships they had. But they were able to link their ships together as they docked with one another. I found this to be an interesting ability, and wondered what else they could do. As soon as there was no longer movement from their ships, I stepped out of the Trident and onto the docks. There stood the 100, in the sand colored cloaks with their hoods up. Each held a 6 foot power-staff, an old weapon that could drop most beings with a touch, and a fine fighting staff in the right hands. The Voleon that stood in front of me asked if I was the holder of the Stone of fate. I reached my bag and pulled out the ordinary looking small stone, and show it to him. He dropped to one knee, as did all the warriors behind him. They all stomped their staffs twice with a force that could be felt across the station, and with one mighty voice said, "we serve!"

  I was properly impressed. Moments later I said, "okay, but there is no need to kneel."

  He looked up and said, "we await your orders."

  I said, "fine then, have your men return to their ships, you and I need to talk." He stood, and with one word they all ran to their ships. Then he turned to me and said, "how may we serve the holder of the Stone of fate?"

  I said, "to begin with you can just call me Captain or sir."

  He said, "yes sir, my captain."

  We then went into my ship and I asked him to tell me about the Stone, their ships, and what I should call him.

  He said, "my name is Kerock. The Stone of fate will sit upon the altar of time, deep within the sacred mountain of our home world of Voleon, for fifty of your years. Then make a sacred journey to the seven colonies of our people, to bless them with prosperity before returning home to rest. Each time it travels it will seek out a worthy cause to bless, so that the ripples of justice and prosperity will return to our people. The children of the sand, and our 100 ships, have been the guardians and servants of the Stone of fate longer than there has been a recorded history for our people. Our ships are small but very strong and can join together to make a flying wall that none may pass. Though we lacked powerful weapons we are very fast and well trained. The wedge shape of our ships, with its Hurkulon armor, allows us to pierce the skin of all ships with but one ram. We are equipped with many mines they can either attach themselves to other ships and send a charge through them that will disable their computers, or deliver a high dose of powerful gas that can knock out most creatures in moments. Each of us is well trained in hand-to-hand combat and is ready to fight to the death without question."

  I said, "well fate must have surely guided you to me in my time of need. I have a mission you can help me with, and if we are lucky no one will die." I told Kerock about the scavengers, their mother-ship and slaves, and how it was my goal to free them. I showed him on the computer the layout of the mothership, and he said they could hit it in many places with the knockout gas, then fight their way to engineering and the bridge. He said they had mask that would protect them from the gas, and were well trained in fighting while holding their breath, in case they were lost in battle. He asked if I plan to keep the ship. I told him there were too many races that wanted it destroy, and that as soon as the slaves were free I would do so. Though I was not sure yet where the people would go. We talked about the scavengers 500 small ships and the electromagnetic pulse weapons they had. Kerock said, “the speed of our ships will help, but some are bound to be hit.”

  I said, “I can only hope that at the time of our attack, most of the scavengers will be off somewhere else, and that we don’t have to deal with too many of them at once as they return. It is my goal to disable their ships, then rip out their electromagnetic pulse weapons and send them on their way. Without their EMP weapons or the mother ship they will no longer be a threat, and have to change their ways.”

  Kerock said, “it is very kind of you not to just destroy them.”

  I said, "all life has meaning, killing is always regrettable."

  He said, "the Stone of fate has truly chosen wisely."

  I said, "may fate be as kind to us."

  The storekeeper said, "whatever you do, it should be soon if you want to save the slaves. The Plexons have an eye out for the scavengers, and will destroy them on sight."

  I said, "we still need to figure out where to take them once they are free." Storekeeper, "that's not going to be easy as well, it is said that they left their home planet nearly 300 years ago because of a plague that they may still carry. But I doubt they are still sick, as none of the ships they have robbed have ever reported coming down with anything. Still, it's just one more reason so many want to just be done with them. Don't worry my Voleon neighbor, you are of a different species and unsusceptible to anything they may still have." Our storekeeper then wished us luck, and left for his shop while we planned our attack. The plan was simple, I would fly to the mother ship and scout it with my living ship cloaked. Then call in the fleet to attach with the knockout gas mines. Because their mines were self-sealing, and worked with a diamond like drill bit that had a acid-core which could cut through any metal, there would be no air loss. Then after stunning any patrol ships, 70 ofthe Warriors would board the mother ship and plant more gas bombs in the ventilation system to knockout anyone in the rest of the ship. Then it was just a matter of taking control of the bridge and engineering while their other 30 ships patrolled for any incoming scavengers. Owsee would be nearby in the Trident to give support if necessary, while I oversaw the operation. I downloaded the layout of the mother ship to the fleet, and we were on our way. I could only hope they had not re-hid the big ship. The fleet preceded on course while I in my living ship took a shortcut through hyperspace to scout out the situation. Along the way I asked Id if she had heard anything about the plague the scavengers may have had.

  She said, "we call them the race of children, because nearly 300 years ago they thought they had found out the secret to DNA manipulation, that is used on Tronex to give their people a life span of 300 years or more. But all they succeeded in doing was to delay their own puberty by 30 years, then they would grow older fast and died within another three years. This made it difficult to successfully breed the continuation of their race. Some say the race of children was once a colony that was founded by the people of Tronex, and then were betrayed, but they do not talk of it."

  I said, "sounds like they have good reason not to talk about it. And if this is all true, then they do not have a plague at all, they just carry a unfortunate genetic condition that only affects them. A race of children that grow old and die just three years after puberty, they are short-lived indeed. But that would not explain why they enslave their own. Unless all the children, and people I saw behind bars and in chains, were captives they took dur
ing their raids, to work on their ship. We will soon learn all there is to know after the ship is free.”

  We came out of hyperspace, near the moon the scavengers had hit the mother ship on, still cloaked and found the ship to to be there. And hundreds of the scavenger ships had returned. There may have been planning to move on soon. This worked into my plan well. If we could catch them with most of the ships on board, and gas them, there would be less to fight in open space. I headed to intercept my fleet, so I could put the attack on hold long enough for the scavengers to dock as many of their ships as were in the area. I did not want to risk a transmission and tip them off. Along the way I try to refine my plan, and figure out how I could best be of help during the battle. But before I got to my fleet I ran into a Plexon battleship that was cruising the area, on a direct course to wear the scavengers mother ship was. I make myself known and talked to the captain.

  I said, "what is your business in this part of space?"

  The Plexon captain said, "we have been tracking the scavengers and will now destroy them."

  I said, "the mother ship is full of slaves, I will free the slaves and destroy the ship myself. Then I will deal with all the scavenger ships, so they will give you no more trouble."

  He said, "they have a plague, they are best distorted."

  I said, "no one that has been in contact with them has gotten sick. From my information, at best they have a genetic disorder that only affects them. I will free the slaves!"

  He said, "we value our trade agreement, but blood has been spilled and we will destroy them."

  Just then my fleet showed up and the Voleons quickly joined their ships together, between the Plexon ship and mine, to form a flying wall in space. This brought the Plexon battleship to a stop.

  Kerock then said to them, "we are the children of the Sands of Time, the holder of the stone of fate is behind us, you are in front ofus. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."

  The Plexon captain said, "no human has ever stood with the Voleons. But out of respect for the stone of fate, we give the sacred warriors three days to walk the path of destiny, then the blood hunt will continue."

  The Plexons then turned around and were soon out of sight.

  Owsee, nearby in the Trident said, "I'm glad that went well. I have a lot of money invested in the crystal trade. I would not want to harm our relationship with the Plexons by destroying one of their ships."

  I said, "we may have wished we let the Plexons have their revenge before this days battle is done. Hundreds of the scavengers have returned to their mother ship. The abilities of our fleet and their weapons will surely be put to the test this day. And just to make things a bit more interesting, I have learned that the scavengers ships may be piloted by children."

  Owsee, "things would be a lot easier if we could just blow things up, disabling ships and rescuing slaves is not my kind of fight."

  I said, "when we decided to free the dock workers we knew it would take commitment, trying to make our space station work was not a easy test as well. Now we have chosen to do this, and it’s time to put our knowledge and skills to the test. Once more into battle we go for a just cause."

  I gave the fleet their last-minute instructions and we were on our way. I could only hope we had been far enough away that the scavengers were not tipped off to our present by our transmissions. We set off at top speed to give them less time to pick us up on their sensors. And when we got there most of the scavengers had docked. This meant less of a space battle, but perhaps more resistance on the mother ship if they had gas mask or were in parts of the ship that were unaffected. My fleet started by launching shock bombs at the launch bays to prevent any more of the scavengers from leaving, while at the same time planted the knockout gas mines along the hull of the mother ship. All this went on as they battled with the scavenger ships that were in the area, stunning them with their shock mines and darting about like flies that just could not be hit. But some of them did catch the blast of the EMP’s and while out of control rammed scavenger ships. With their Hurkulon armor they ripped through the scavengers ships as if they were tin cans, then drifted out to space. I hoped the battle would be short and their rescue would come soon. But a few, out of control, crashed into the moon. Even with their armor, survival was doubtful. I wanted to help with the battle, but everyone was moving so fast that my eyes could not find a target. But a number of scavengers ships had ganged up on Owsee, and were trying to knock him out with their EMP weapons, when he fired on them and took out 14 at once. It was the only time the Trident fire during what was a very short battle. Soon all the scavengers ships in the area were immobilized by our shock weapons, and the gas mines were set off on the mother ship. The scavengers and our people were quickly rescued from their disabled ships, and we boarded the mother ship, still filled with gas. My people, with their gas mask on, sent more gas throughout the ship while securing anyone they found by locking them all up in unused areas. There were, of course, a few that had put on bereaving apparatuses and had to be taken down by hand. But no one was seriously hurt on the mother ship. Within an hour we were in complete control, and everyone was locked up. The Voleons did a complete scan of the ship to see if there was any dangerous viruses, germs or harmful bacteria. They found nothing unusual or dangerous. So I came aboard to talk to the prisoners and slaves. As we were securing the ship, from time to time a few more scavengers would return, and be dealt with quickly.

  But after talking to some of the people on the scavengers ship, I found out they did not know they were slaves. They just believed they were members of a community, born to serve the ship that provided for them, and all part of the same family. Yes, life was hard and sometimes evencruel, but that was just the way things were and the only way they knew. The lucky ones would rise to the rank of becoming scavengers for the mother ship, and have first pick of whatever they needed, while the rest would serve the ship the best they could; but they didn't know they were slaves. That word had no meaning to them, so these people could not easily be freed. They would return control of the mother ship to the scavengers as soon as they could. To them, they were their family, and it was their duty. I could not just tell them to stop stealing from other ships, this was their way of surviving, and they saw nothing wrong in it. It was the only way they knew, and would not easily give up. I felt sorry for them, because if I could not find a solution they would soon be destroyed. The Plexons would have no mercy! I had my men placed more gas bombs next to the doors and air intake vents to the areas we were keeping the crew confined. With the scavengers that returned we had near 2,000 people to restrain, until I could get them someplace safe where they could stay after I destroyed their ship. I brought the rest of my fleet onboard, so the remaining scavenger ships that returned would not know what was going on until they landed, and were taken. The Trident, which was too large to hide inside the mother ship, moved around to the other side of the Moon to hide. After researching their computers and talking to more of them, I found out that some of the rumors I had heard were true. These were the descendents of a colony of Tronex, from nearly 300 years ago, while Tronex was still refining the longevity experiments. The people of their colony were given what they were told was a genetic treatment, that would prolong their lives. It seemed to work, and was given to anyone that had not reached puberty, and it kept them young for another 30 years but then they grew old very fast. Within three years of reaching puberty they all died of old age. What was a colony of nearly 200,000 soon were looking at the end of their lives. Tronex, unwilling to admit to their apocalyptic error, quarantine the colony and told people it had a plague. But 5,000 of the colonist made it out on this mother ship looking for help, and a new life with their genetic structure changed so that they only had three years to live after they entered puberty. Reproducing was highly unsuccessful to the point that what was once 5,000 was now less than 2,000. Rumors that they were a plague ship followed them all these years so that they could not find a new home. They did
what they had to in order to survive, always on the run and hunted. Upon hearing all of this, Kerock, the leader of the 100 children of the sand said, “the people of Voleon will take this lost county of Tronex children in, and give them a good life on Voleon.”