The second to arrive introduced himself as Captain Hook, James T. Hook. He wore tall black boots, flared red pants, a black jacket with a ruffled shirt. His black wavy hair was down to his shoulders and he wore a huge black hat with gold trim and a feather.
“It’s a good thing my cargo ship isn’t here,” Rachel said.
“The one you call ‘Peter’?” Jane asked.
“As in ‘Peter Pan’, yes,” Rachel replied with a chuckle.
Once they were settled in the studio, Jane addressed the group. “Ladies and Gentlemen, in order to properly set the tone of the negotiations we are about to conduct, I would like show you the beginnings of a documentary we are preparing on the planet below us. We have not laid the music track yet and some of the narration needs work. We may substitute some of the images in the final product, but this is close to what we intend to broadcast when we return.”
“If you return,” Captain Bligh corrected.
“When we return, Captain Bligh. Roll please.”
The lights dimmed and the monitor in front of them lit with the images of the planet. Some of the footage came from the cameras on the MMARV’s. Some came from the AARV’s, but the bulk of the footage came from Stu and Fatima’s cameras. They had turned in excellent work. The final shot was from Stu’s camera as the rock left the animal’s hand and hit him in the head.
When the lights came back up, Captain Bligh said, “I am not impressed. I see no reason why you should challenge my demand that you vacate the system.”
“We intend to vacate the system, but are you aware what will happen if we distribute this documentary and there is no one here to defend this system?” Jane Turner challenged.
“Then I insist that you not distribute the documentary. It’s that simple,” Captain Bligh replied.
“That is not possible,” Jane Turner challenged.
“What is there to prevent me from taking your puny unarmed studio ship by force and destroying the documentary?” Captain Hook interjected.
“The Queen Elizabeth,” Rachel said.
“The Thor Heyerdahl,” Captain Simpson added.
“Four P I ships, twelve pickets and a squad of Marines well trained in ship-to-ship combat,” Wendy further explained.
“What if I call your bluff?” Captain Hook pressed.
“No need to,” Rachel said. “What we want from you before we leave is minor and should cause you no inconvenience.”
“Our terms are firm. You leave the system. There can be no bargaining.” Captain Bligh asserted.
Rachel picked up her comm. “Would you like me to turn your little cruisers into expanding balls of plasma because I mistook them for pirates, Captain Hook?”
“What are your terms?” Captain Bligh asked.
“Your representatives stay here for a minimum of five years. You certify our report that the planet is not suitable for human colonization. At regular intervals of not less than every six months, you send fresh data to the colony service that strengthens your claim that the planet is not safe for humans. You defend the planet against the big game hunters that are sure to follow,” Rachel said evenly.
“That it?” Captain Bligh sneered.
“And safe passage out of the system for our ships along with assurances that should any member of my extended family return to check on you, that you will not fire on them,” Rachel said.
“What about funding support in return for allowing you to distribute the documentary?”
“That’s not going to happen,” Jane scoffed.
“How will you describe this negotiation?” Captain Bligh asked.
Rachel smiled, “As a frank and open discussion of the dangers of colonization of this planet and the best means to protect it from humans and humans from it. After discussing several alternatives, we felt that this agreement was the best for all parties involved.”
“Fair enough. When will you leave?”
“As soon as Miss Turner and Captain Simpson assure me that the documents and signatures are in order.”
The documents were signed, copied, distributed and recorded within the hour. Courier missiles were dispatched as appropriate. Rachel called her patrol ships back to dock.
At the last moment of parting, Captain Charles Simpson turned back to Rachel. “Captain Cohen, I have regretted since the day you stood up for yourself in court, that I stood against you. I have wanted to apologize to you on a hundred occasions. I even thought about traveling to Eretz to do it. At this late date, please accept my apology.”
“Your apology is accepted. Let’s hope that this action can help revitalize your career.”
“Thank you. Do you think we will ever see each other again?” Captain Simpson asked.
“No way to know. Be careful out there.”
“Aye, Captain.”
COLONY SERVICE - CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THERE WAS DEBATE as to who was happiest to be leaving the planet they had turned over to the Creighton Society. Certainly there was no sadness at leaving the place behind.
Rachel and Jane Turner had agreed that Fatima and three of her colleagues should embed with the Queen Elizabeth for a few months and document their activities. The Fourth Battle Wing became the focus of much of Fatima’s work. Their relationship strengthened daily.
The jump to the next planet was two weeks. Faye Anne and Peter were already there in orbit.
“Don’t bother to unpack,” Faye Anne said as soon as she arrived in Rachel’s office.
“That bad?”
“Oh, yeah. The captain of the Amerigo Vespucci is a complete idiot. He says the atmosphere is only a little out of tolerances. Yeah! If you like acid rain and lakes full of arsenide. Send a team down on a med ship with atmospheric test equipment. Tell them not to extend the landing gear. The atmosphere will eat the tires. Have them report what they find. Then, we’ll move on. I think I have a better place.”
The team that sampled the atmosphere reported that an outfit like Orion Metals that was equipped to work in uninhabitable locations might be able to make a go of it, but they did not wish to stay. The necessary documentation was generated and sent in a courier back to the colony service.
As Rachel gave the helmsman the coordinates that Faye Anne had provided, she realized that she had not made contact with the captain of the Amerigo Vespucci at all during their short visit.
“The man is the son of some powerful jackass politician in Houston. He’s not worth the powder to blow him up,” Faye Anne said in disgust. “The kid couldn’t hold a job so Daddy got him this one. Daddy is being investigated for influence peddling. The son is implicated. According to one of my friends at Langley, the best Daddy can hope for is that the delay bringing junior back to testify will be enough for him to gracefully retire at the end of his term without going to trial.”
“Helmsman, are we ready to depart?”
“Aye, Captain.”
“On your mark, let’s move out.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The jump to the new planet took three weeks. The team on site was a small group operating out of a converted cruiser. Lt. Tom Farmington was the commanding officer.
“Captain Cohen! It is an honor to meet you. I think your people will like it here,” Lt. Farmington effused to the group in Rachel’s conference room. “I have already informed Colony Service that when the first colony group shows up I am staying here. The planet appears to have recently left an ice age. The ice sheets appear to be receding. Currently the tropics maintain about the temperature range of Earth’s temperate zones. They have four seasons, although they do have some severe weather from time to time. I have picked out a spot for the initial runway and settlement, but we will need to move before the spring rains because it will flood. There are plenty of places with higher ground where we can find fertile farm land and ample fresh water.” Lt. Farmington rattled on for a while about the topography and weather patterns. He was obviously excited about the prospect of establishing a colony and talked about br
inging his wife and children to live with him on this place he was prepared to call home.
The head of the security detail that had established the perimeter for the runway construction on their last attempt at establishing a colony asked, “What about predators?”
“The largest predator is about the size of a timber wolf. They hunt in packs and they are smart. They are definitely smarter than an Earth timber wolf. They know they can’t eat us, but they don’t really know what to make of us. They aren’t so densely populated that we won’t be able to fence them out of our pastures, but we will need to deal with them. They seem to be able to communicate over distances by howling and barking. I don’t see them as a threat, but I don’t know if they could be domesticated. I think that would be our best approach with them. Domestication may work. I would like to try that first. There are some smaller predators that we will need to contend with and some small herbivores we will need to keep out of the crops. I see some of the fliers as being troublesome to the crops, but we face wolves, raccoons, rabbits and crows on Earth and we deal with them. This is no different. It’s not perfect, but it is very good.”
Runway construction started the next day. A week later, the first ships landed on it. The entire colony was in place by the end of the first month. As predicted, the timber wolf like animals appeared around the periphery of the construction site appearing more curious than threatened or threatening. They could often be seen sitting on some outcropping of rock taking it all in apparently fascinated by the activity below them.
Fatima had taken charge of the camera crew and had them racing from place to place as they documented the activity. One member of the camera crew had set up a stationary camera position on one of the outcroppings that the wolves used to observe the construction. He was intently working with his camera when he thought he smelled something that reminded him of the dog he had as a child. One of the timber wolves calmly sat beside him staring at him gently swinging its tail back and forth. The wolf yawned and stretched. The camera operator yawned and stretched. The wolf sneezed. The camera operator sneezed. The wolf rubbed his nose with his paw. The camera operator rubbed his nose with his hand. The wolf turned and trotted off.
For the next week, that camera operator reported seeing a wolf observing him. He decided to return to the outcropping where the wolf had first approached him. One of the small animals that the wolves preferred for food had been killed by one of the farm machines. The camera operator brought it with him and put it on the ground beside him. The wolf grabbed it and ran.
Six months after the Queen Elizabeth’s arrival, a formal Colony Service survey team arrived in a converted battleship. They were not pleased that Rachel had settled the planet in advance of their arrival. However, they agreed to take over the defense of the colony and help manage its growth. They were particularly interested in the growing relationship with the timber wolves and promised to help support its development.
Fatima and crew elected to stay deciding that the timber wolves were a more interesting story than the Queen Elizabeth. Other members of the crew whose enlistment contracts were ending also elected to stay.
The Queen Elizabeth set course for headquarters and some rest. Faye Anne had already left to find their next potential colony. Upon arrival, the harbor master informed them that their base of operations would be moved to the freight depot adjacent to New St. Louis. Faye Anne, Peter and their next load of passengers awaited them there.
Faye Anne had indeed found another planet, but apparently pirates had established a base there and it would have to be cleaned out first. The stay at the New St. Louis depot was short. With her convoy increased by four convoy escort ships, the Queen Elizabeth set out for the new planet. There is something to be said for the application of overwhelming force. The pirates in their ships fled as soon as they were challenged by one of the P I ships or the convoy escorts. The pirates on the surface surrendered without resistance.
With a runway already in place and a rudimentary flight apron established, setting up the colony went quickly. The escort ships left a week after arrival without having expended any ordinance. Six months after the Queen Elizabeth arrived, a convoy of Colony Service freighters arrived with the second wave of colonists and military hardware as would be needed to defend the planet against pirates or other criminals.
Having accomplished their mission, the Queen Elizabeth and those of her crew that did not elect to stay behind headed back to freight depot adjacent to New St. Louis to do it again.
Faye Anne was unusually quiet when Rachel contacted her at the freight depot. Instead of meeting Rachel on the ship, she asked Rachel to meet her alone in one of the small board rooms in the depot’s hotel conference center. Once Rachel had settled, Faye Anne took a deep breath. “We have three options. None of the planets are ideal. One is too hot. One is too cold and one is heavy. The one that is too hot, however, presents a unique challenge. According to my sources, it is being operated by slavers as a hunting preserve.”
Faye Anne had anticipated Rachel’s reaction perfectly and raised her hand so she could continue. “The preferred prey is humans.”
“Are you sure?” Rachel asked.
“I checked with a buddy at Langley who said he has heard rumors to that effect. A friend at Eretz had heard it as well. There are allusions to it in the data my father left behind. One of the security people here had heard about it. He had noticed groups of hunters gathering here and wondered what they were hunting. Nobody had anything concrete until I decided see if Jane Turner could help. She had done that report on slave trading and might have heard something. Jane was not available so I chatted with her boss. He is anxious to meet you and has information for us. Shall I show him in?”
“Please.”
“Please allow me to introduce Mr. Al Lansing, Regional Vice President of the Constant News Channel with specific responsibility for the Combat News Specialists. Did I get that right?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Mr. Lansing,” Rachel said, “Faye Anne tells us you have knowledge of a certain planet that may be of interest to us.”
Mr. Lansing raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Did I tell you?” Faye Anne smirked.
“Yes, you did. Captain Cohen, the planet in question is heavily guarded and even a tactician as skilled as you could not take this planet.”
Rachel smiled. “I will be the judge of that.”
“As you wish,” Mr. Lansing replied. “We had a combat adviser we called ‘Jet’. For their safety, none of our field advisers use their real names. This one was one of our best. The camera crews loved him. He was a former Federation Marine and he was good with our people. His nom de guerre was ‘Jet’ because he was black and he moved quickly. He had been invited by some mercenaries we ran into on an assignment to join them for a special hunting expedition. He went and came back two months later a changed man. He was angry with a power that frightened me even being in the same room with him. He left some recordings he had made. He resigned and gave me a letter. He told me that if I ever met you I was to give you this letter. He said to read the letter in my presence, but not to share it with anyone until you were safely on your ship.”
Rachel took the hand written letter and gently opened it. Her eyes quickly scanned to the signature and her heart skipped a beat. “Lionel,” she said before she clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Our?” Faye Anne stopped herself in mid word.
Rachel nodded slightly holding her hand over her mouth as the acid in her stomach churned.
Al Lansing waited until they had calmed down. “He said he was rounding up some of his old buddies and you should round up some of yours and you would know what to do. I looked at some of the recordings after he left. They were chasing women and children and killing them with knives and their bare hands.”
“This letter was written two years ago,” Rachel said. “Have you heard anything since?”
“No, what are you going to d
o?”
“Not talk about it because if we do we might not live to leave port,” Rachel said.
“So, are you going?” Al Lansing pressed.
“We do not talking about plans. This meeting never happened. Your life could be in danger.”
Al Lansing was found dead in his bed the following morning. He had been beaten and his throat had been cut. His living quarters had been ransacked. The station security chief expressed the belief that whoever killed him did not find what they were looking for. That would be because he had given it to Rachel when he handed her the letter.
The Fourth Battle Wing left later that day. Their flight plan stated that they were returning to Eretz to repair battle damage. Peter’s flight plan stated that he was going to Homestead to pick up a load of frozen food. Rachel went to visit the local Colony Service representative to see about when she could expect to be loaded for her next mission. On her return she renewed acquaintances with a Space Force officer who had been on one of the club sports teams she had played at the Academy.
Three days later, with less than her normal allotment of colonists, but more than her normal allotment of cargo, the Queen Elizabeth eased out of port to make the short jump from the depot to New St. Louis. She got half way there, dropped out of hyper drive and abruptly changed course. The jump to her final destination would only take four days. A planet with this much criminal activity this close to the main shipping lanes spoke of corruption at the highest levels.
Buddy, Delmar and Barney sat quietly at a point in space that bore no landmarks. Its location was a mathematical construct based on a spherical grid that had its origination in the center of the galaxy. One by one, a rag tag fleet of retired ships and semi retired crews clandestinely recruited for a special mission assembled at this point in space. Eight new convoy escorts were the last to arrive. Communicating by laser, each of the ships was given a new set of coordinates to jump to. One of the ships, a destroyer, waited a little too long to leave. It spun to fire with its targeting radar active. Buddy fired a four missile volley and destroyed it before it could get the first missile off.
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