Amini sat straight up in her chair as instant recognition ran through her like electricity. “The Lotana is one of the ships on our list that disappeared, right? What about her crew?”
“Yes, Ms. Amini, it is the ship that went missing. Her captain, Captain Lambru, was killed during the capture. Her first officer and crew were taken away as laborers, the records say. In addition, I was able to download much of her recent navigation data, including the location she left to meet the Argos. There are other ship names in her system as well, and it appears the number is growing. However, I was not able to extract more detail when I was called to help except that a few may be warships.”
“Warships? Out here?” Doc asked, pushing away from the bulkhead he had been leaning on.
“So, it appears, Doctor Ramard. That would make sense if the operators want to grow their fleet. It would need protection.”
“Yes, it does make sense if they are purposely growing their fleet. Do we know that for sure?”
“The recent number of ships added to the fleet suggests they are.”
“But why?”
I took the opportunity to step into the conversation. “Let me offer a couple of possibilities, Doc. One might be they want to expand their illicit profit-making operations beyond the Tye system to move into the Jayton system or even the Tula system, for example. That would take more ships. Or, they may want to expand their infrastructure utilization to develop more of the planet for themselves. There’s a lot of undeveloped land there, ripe for mining things like precious metals and gemstones, among other things. That would take more ships. There are more reasons, but those two seem the most likely to me.”
The doctor let those ideas sink in but wasn’t about to drop the subject. “But surely they understand that expanding their illegal tactics would only draw the attention of the Consortium and its power.”
“True, if they were smart. But they may think that Consortium power is relatively weak after the war. It’s only been a little over two years, and they undoubtedly know we lost a huge number of ships. They may think there is nothing the Consortium can do right now way out here.”
“But we know that isn’t true.”
“Yes, but I’m not sure they do. After all, the Consortium hasn’t done anything yet out here. That alone may give them confidence.”
“You may be right. Shouldn’t we let people know what’s happening?”
“We’re thinking alike, Doc. It’s time to send a comm drone out, telling people back home we are on station and what little we know and how much more there is to find out based on our orders. Got that Harry?”
“Yes, Captain. Drone on the way.”
“But if something happens to us later, how will the information we collect be of use?” Amini asked, staring straight at me with her big brown, unblinking eyes.
“I’ve thought of that, and we’ll follow Consortium protocol. We’ll continually upload data into an FTL comm drone that can be released and head for home when we want or if we are knocked out of action or need help. Start that now, Harry, if you haven’t already done so.”
“I have started, Captain.”
“There,” I said with a smile and gestured toward Harry. “Problem solved, easy peasy. Where was the Dreng, or Lotana, before she set off to meet us, Harry?”
A holographic star chart appeared next to Harry, and he highlighted a spot with a red ring.
“Right here, Captain.”
As usual, I was impressed with Harry’s technical capabilities but noted he, or at least this version of him, hadn’t yet fully grasped the relative ignorance of his human companions.
“Great… where’s here?”
Harry blinked twice until he realized his omission. “This is an area a relatively short FTL distance from here and about a two-day FTL trip from Tye, Captain. It is deeper into the old Arkon empire and toward the abandoned Arkon Asteroid 5 and adjacent to a small asteroid belt. My preliminary assessment is that this is a rendezvous point for similar ships and perhaps a small supply base among the asteroids. I have no name for the location.”
“Why way out there?” Amini asked.
The answer was obvious to me. “It’s in a direction away from Consortium-explored areas and so remote as to be not seen by any other traffic. A safe spot for them.”
“Then, that’s the pirate headquarters?” Doc asked, turning from looking at the star chart to look at me.
I thought about that for a moment. It could be if the operation were a small one. But as I had suggested, I didn’t think this was a penny-ante organization.
“I don’t think so, not big enough.” I heard myself saying as everyone returned to their duties.
As I watched these people perform their jobs, I could begin to understand the pride in command. It isn’t just that you are in command; it’s also about pride in how well everyone works together toward a common goal. I was also learning that command could be a heavy burden. Way out here in the middle of nowhere, relative to the Consortium, there was nobody to ask for advice, no set of rules that are perfect for the unknown. On this ship, way out here, I was placed in command. That meant doing what I thought was right and best. A heavy responsibility for a guy who hasn’t yet turned thirty, but one I was willing to take on. What was required here and now was to continue to collect information. My intel experience and maybe my second sense was telling me there was more here than met the eye.
After the initiation of our transition to FTL, Amini stayed on the bridge, and Doc and I found our way to our small combination galley and mess hall. There are food synthesizers in the galley, but none of us liked to use them while we still had fresh food from Zarminia and even Earth in our coolers. When people from Earth met people from Zarminia, the one thing they found they both liked were sandwiches. Or, at least, what appeared to be sandwiches. The two races didn’t call them the same thing, but the Zarminians thought the word sandwich was a more exotic word for the common food, so the term became universal.
I’m a simple food creature. Some might call what I eat junk food. I was craving a Philly cheesesteak sandwich (with Whiz) but didn’t have the makings. Plus, I didn’t want to break out a pizza from the freezer (my stepmom, Rose, had some brought from Earth). So, my next best choice was peanut butter and jelly. I don’t like coffee or tea or what passes for each on Zarminia, so I stick with water. Unless, of course, there might be some adult beverage like beer around —which there wasn’t on Argos, yet.
Doc made himself a sandwich from a supply of romrah, the Zarminian equivalent of beef, which both he and Amini loved. It was OK, but it would never make a good cheesesteak. I told myself that the white stuff he spread on top of it was mayo, but it wasn’t and tasted awful. He also preferred water. We both took a seat at one of two tables available and began enjoying our simple meal.
“So, what do you think so far?’ I asked the good doctor.
“You and Amini are crazy.”
Normally, that would have hurt my feelings. But this wasn’t the first time he’d said the same thing. And I noticed that lately, when he said it, the tips of his mouth turned up slightly like he was trying to suppress a smile. He didn’t mean we were actually crazy. At least I didn’t think he did.
“So, what’s new about that? Anybody would have to be a little crazy to come way out here knowing as little as we know about this area of space.”
“True, but you seem to enjoy it. Didn’t you tell me a story not so long ago about people who were washed out of flight training programs because they had no apparent fear of death?”
“My father told me that story from when he was a flight instructor. And it was a real reason to throw students out of the training program. Not so much that they feared death; they just failed to anticipate how their actions would obviously result in their death.”
“What’s the difference between that and the way you think
?”
“A big difference. First, like most people, I’m not excited about dying. But second, I do think about the impact on myself and others when I do things. Some people on Earth would think me corny, that’s an Earth expression I might explain some other time, but I believe in what we are doing, what the Consortium is trying to do. Ultimately, I weigh sacrifices against the mission and the welfare of humans and allies in general. Each of us has some higher concept we work for or with. Don’t doctors do the same?”
“You mean something like the Hippocratic Oath you have on Earth? Follow ethical concepts and do no harm in your practice?”
“Exactly.”
“Yes. I guess you’re right, at least where the allies are concerned. I’m not sure the rest of the galaxy thinks the same.”
“You mean like the Arkon and the Naskapi?”
“Yes. However, I’ll admit we still don’t know much about either race. The ones we met and fought may be dangerous exceptions to their own basic rules. I can’t say.”
“Don’t say that to my father. He’s convinced both races are bad to the core.” Or was it bone?
“And you?”
“I fought them both. Once next to my father. But I’ll admit I never got too close to either race to make a clear judgment.”
I watched the doctor’s eyebrows raise when I said that.
“What, you don’t believe me?”
“No, I’m just surprised. I thought all military people thought alike.”
“A common misconception.”
“I’m starting to learn,” the doctor said as he started to rise.
“Wait a minute. What about you?”
“What do you mean?” the doctor asked as he eased back into his seat.
“You are a dedicated medical man who took flight surgeon training before you came out here. But you’ve never seen combat. Why would you come with us?”
“You would need a doctor, and learning to become a flight surgeon was a new challenge to me.”
“That’s it? Just looking for a new way to practice medicine?”
“Basically, yes.”
“You mean you didn’t think about all the dangers out here and how you might be placing yourself in harm’s way?’
“I thought about it, but the ship seemed to be a relatively safe place to conduct my practice.”
I wanted to laugh out loud, but I didn’t.
“But you won’t always be on the inside of the ship.”
The doctor gave me a disbelieving look.
“I won’t?”
“No. Aside from a few trips to some ports to get supplies and do some trading, there will likely be more than a few times when we leave the ship to conduct part of the mission. Why do you think I have you learning to fly?
“I assumed you wanted to make me more aware of how ships work and what it’s like to be a pilot.”
“That’s partly true, but with only three of us as a crew, we all have to share some skills. If we get in a fight, it will be all hands on deck.”
The room was filled with silence as understanding slowly crept across Doc’s face.
“You mean I might have to shoot someone?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Doc slowly rose from his seat at the table and mechanically tossed his dinner remains in the small trash recycler nearby. “You’ll have to excuse me. I still have more to learn about the Falcon in the learning chair. Plus, I have some things to think about.”
I haven’t mentioned the Falcon so far because, well, it wasn’t important until now. I did mention early on that the Argos had some special attributes. I mentioned, for example, her ability to leap and her state-of-the-art weapons and systems. The Falcon was something that I knew about and flew before we launched on this mission. It is a combination combat shuttle and gunship carried in the internal bottom centerline of the Argos. The Falcon, as she was named, was the brainchild of Amini’s father, Ootah, leader of the Carian clans near Zarminia, and was intended as an added defensive system for the Argos as she roamed the cosmos. When stored inside the ship, she became an integral part of the ship’s systems. Her underside was an integral part of the Argos’ belly. The Argos’ new bridge, as we called it, was the bridge of the Falcon and was where Amini was sitting at this very moment.
When needed, the Falcon could disconnect and be dropped from the bottom of the Argos and used as necessary. She is all black with no markings and comes with all the bells and whistles that Ootah and Galactic Force Master Builder, Phil Loomis, could stuff into her. Relative to the Argos, she was small. But, as a combat ship, she was large enough and fast enough to challenge a corvette and make a pest of herself to larger ships, if necessary. So far, we’ve had no need of her except for a few training flights when we were in the middle of nowhere. However, it has been an immense comfort to know she’s there when we need her. We also count on her being a big surprise to somebody when the time is right.
Chapter 4
Harry and Amini plotted a course to the area of space that the Dreng had come from before intercepting us. It would take us about twelve hours to get there. I cautioned them not to get us too close to the target area on the first try to minimize detection when exiting FTL.
When we did exit FTL, we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, which was just fine with me. Harry estimated our goal to be four thousand miles away, which we started closing with Argos’ normal space drive under stealth cover. We used our passive sensors to search ahead. It didn’t take long to discover a small asteroid field that promised to be our area of interest. I call it a field because unlike traditional asteroid belts or trojan asteroids, they don’t orbit a star, planet, or large moon. I think of them as space debris set adrift eons ago for reasons still unknown. Normally, they amount to nothing more than junk and hazards to navigation. We marked this one as a hazard in our space charts.
We began breaking as soon as we detected the asteroid field and came to a halt a few hundred miles away. I launched a small stealth drone to get a closer look. When it returned, we realized that one of the asteroids showed some signs of life. Not only had the drone collected electronic signals from the area, it also captured dim video with just enough detail to see faint outlines and the station keeping lights of two small cargo ships hovering outside the weak gravity well of the asteroid. There were also at least two lights on the surface of the asteroid, which might indicate an enclosure or surface station. But there didn’t appear to be any activity either aboard the ships or on the surface. Just to be safe, I decided to wait a while and sent the drone out several more times with near real-time updates via narrow-band laser communications to send information back to us.
“This is boring,” Amini finally said as she adjusted herself from her growing discomfort in her navigation station chair.
I had to agree and decided we needed to get closer, not with Argos but with a shuttle.
“Harry, prepare Shuttle 1 for launch. Amini and I are going to get a closer look.”
“Yes, Captain,” was all Harry needed to say. The name Shuttle 1 was the obvious choice of name since we had a grand total of two shuttles, 1 and 2.
“Call Doc to the bridge, Amini, and turn the ship over to him when he arrives. I’m headed to cargo bay 2.”
“Already called him. He’s on his way here.”
Argos has two cargo bays, one on top of the other, aligned above the centerline between the Falcon and the ship’s engineering spaces. Cargo bay 1 was the one I tried to use when the Dreng came alongside. It’s the upper of the two areas and the one most used for real cargo. That’s where our load of lumber was stored on the trip out to Tye.
Cargo bay 2 is the lower of the two, slightly smaller, and is the place we planned for shuttle launch and retrieval — or real cargo if we happened to get overloaded in bay 1. Amini and Doc wanted to call it the flight bay, but I o
verruled them.
By the time I got there, Harry already had Shuttle 1 started and flight checks completed. Amini arrived within two minutes of me. All Amini and I had to do was don our lightweight combat suits, each with a stun pistol, strap into the small cockpit, and verify the needed links with both Harry and the Argos. I chose stun pistols because if we had to shoot someone, it would be better to keep them dizzy and alive than to leave bodies all over telling everyone that bad people had been there. This was supposed to be clandestine, after all. On this flight, we would depend heavily on Harry guiding us to and landing on the asteroid. It was just too dark to try it ourselves, especially for a first time.
“Ready to go, Harry?”
“Yes, Captain. Cargo bay 2 lights are off, and depressurization has started.” Harry reminded us that we didn’t need to show any more lights to the two ships and the asteroid than necessary. Using thrusters, Doc followed a similar precaution and maneuvered the ship so that the cargo bay doors faced away from the asteroid, just in case some stray light might shine out when the doors opened. It didn’t, but the procedure was the right one. Doc was getting pretty good at this flying stuff. I let Amini slowly maneuver the shuttle out of the bay and drop down below the bottom of the Argos. She then pointed the nose of the small craft toward the asteroid and punched in some forward thrust before Harry took over. Not too much, just enough to get us headed in the right direction while still reviewing feed from the drone on our forward viewscreens. All of this under stealth conditions.
Slowly the surface of the asteroid began to appear thanks to the lights we could now see fastened to a medium-sized enclosure. The low-light vision system of our combat helmets started making sense of what was ahead. Of course, everything looked green to us, but the size and shape of the enclosure was becoming clear — a big square box, with only one door that we could see. Many antennas were arrayed on top of the box, which likely accounted for some or all the electronic signals Harry picked up before we left the Argos.
Crucible: Records of the Argos Page 4