Superdreadnought- The Complete Series

by C H Gideon

  The scent of fresh foliage struck them almost like a physical blow as they stepped inside. Jiya groaned.

  “That smells delicious,” she said, unable to wipe the silly grin from her face.

  “Ka’nak will be upset that he missed this,” Takal mentioned, following L’Eliana into The Greenhouse, marveling at its magnificence.

  “It definitely puts to rest his idea of the food around here,” Maddox said.

  Once the crew were inside, the impressiveness of the system overwhelmed them like a cascading waterfall.

  The Greenhouse held five levels separated into sub-sections, each controlling a different type of food production.

  Fantastically mutated versions of 3-D printers covered the whole of each row. A quiet murmur filled the air as the food printers ran, quickly and effectively producing everything from bushels of wheat to corn to fruits and other vegetables, as well as slabs of fresh-looking meat that appeared as if they had been freshly harvested from prized livestock.

  Each food-type dropped from the printer and landed on the conveyor belt, the product traveling down the line to disappear into the distance, along with tons and tons of other food products.

  Amazed and awed, they watched as the printers shifted to a new product line, printing and delivering the finished products to the material-handling system. The new foodstuffs joined the previous batch somewhere at the far end of the belts.

  In the few minutes the crew stood watching, enough food was produced to feed the entire Reynolds crew for weeks.

  “Unbelievable,” Takal muttered, stumbling forward, desperate to take a closer look.

  L’Eliana stopped him with a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, but you must stay behind the line here,” she said, pointing to a yellow line on the floor that none of the crew had noticed, their sole focus on the wizardry of creation before them.

  Takal spun to face Reynolds. “This would be a boon to the SD Reynolds like no other,” he called.

  Reynolds bit back a groan at the male’s enthusiasm.

  “We’ll discuss this with Gorad,” Reynolds answered, clearly hoping Takal would leave it at that.

  Of course, he didn’t.

  Too excited to see Reynolds’ subtle attempt at quieting him, Takal went on, “This would change everything, Reynolds. We would no longer need to barter for foodstuffs. We could create our own and truly be independent of external—”

  Jiya leaned in and pinched Takal’s side. He grunted and spun around, wondering what had happened, and Jiya gave him a stern look, putting one finger to her lips.

  Takal glared for a moment, appearing ready to say something, then suddenly looked guilty when he realized what he’d divulged. He groaned at his indiscretion.

  “Oh, dear.”

  “This is most certainly impressive, although I’ve seen similar systems,” Reynolds told L’Eliana, but Jiya knew the damage had been done.

  Gorad understood the value the inventor placed on the food production devices and he’d undoubtedly seen his excitement. That would play a role in the negotiations moving forward.

  Jiya took Takal by the arm on one side, and Geroux hooked his other arm with hers.

  “Let’s go to the hovercraft, Uncle,” Geroux told him.

  “I suppose that’s for the best,” he moaned, skulking toward it like a punished child.

  Jiya glanced at Reynolds, who had already turned back to face L’Eliana.

  “I suppose now is as good a time as any to speak with Gorad.”

  “Most certainly.” L’Eliana smiled, accommodating as always. “He’s looking forward to it.”

  Now more than ever, Jiya thought, leading Takal away. Maddox shuffled after them trying to capture any secrets that might be in the open, but he was denied. The systems particulars didn’t reveal themselves.

  “I wonder how things are going down there.” Asya paced in front of the viewscreens, wishing she’d gone with the rest of the crew.

  She hated waiting.

  “Things are fine, or they would have notified us,” Comm assured her.

  “Or they could all be dead,” Tactical countered. “We could be cut off from the rest of the crew, and they could be down there getting tortured and murdered as we speak. Torn to bits by robotic spiders or rabid, mutant orangutans.”

  “We’ve got them on the scanner,” Comm confirmed, confidence in his voice. “Biostats are stable and well within range. No sign of spiders or monkeys, or even spider-monkeys.”

  “Or they could be fine,” Tactical went on after Comm’s declaration. “You never know.”

  Ria gasped, bolting upright at her station with her cheeks paling.

  “See what you did, Tactical?” Asya grunted his way. “You’ve scared the probie with all your talk of torture.”

  “That’s not what I’m…” Ria started to explain, her eyes growing wider and wider. “Oh…shit.”

  Klaxons sounded overhead as XO discovered what had spooked the young helmsman.

  “A ship has appeared on the screens,” Comm clarified, putting the image on the screen. At this distance, it was little more than a tiny dot despite magnification.

  Asya stared at the viewscreen, examining the data. “That’s impressive, Ensign,” she commented. “That ship is at the very edge of the system. I’m surprised you managed to pick it up.”

  Ria sucked in a deep breath to calm her nerves. “I was…playing with the scanner settings, just kind of sweeping randomly as far out as I could to see what was out there to keep from being bored,” she admitted.

  “Well, looks like you landed a big fish on your first trip out,” XO told her. “We’re looking at a cruiser, based on its relative size. It appears to have Gated in at damn near the exact location where we did earlier.”

  “That’s not suspicious at all,” Tactical said. “There’s no way their positioning was coincidental. They must have trailed our Etheric signature somehow and plotted a course based on it.”

  “Can they do that? Even if they did, her crew doesn’t seem to realize we know she’s there,” XO announced. “I’m not getting any scans pinging us or the Grindlovian fleet or the defensive ring.”

  “I wasn’t sending active signals while I was scanning,” Ria explained, her cheeks flushing with color now that the initial scare had passed. “I was taking readings of the various gravity wells in the system and watching for anomalies. The ship triggered a wave as it Gated in and I caught sight of the motion, allowing me to zero in on it without alerting it to our presence.”

  “That’s why they’re running dark still,” XO explained. “They came in stealthy and haven’t realized the ensign here has spotted them. They’re orienting to our position before they do anything else.”

  “However she managed it, it worked out perfectly,” Asya replied, slipping into Reynolds’ captain’s chair to more closely examine the intel the Reynolds was feeding across the screen. “It gives us a few minutes to sneak a peek and see who and what we’re looking at without letting them know we’ve got our eyes on them.”

  “Should we notify Reynolds?” Ria asked.

  Asya cracked her knuckles and leaned over the console to work. “Not yet. Let’s see what we’ve got first, then we can worry the captain with the details.” She motioned to Comm. “Eyes on that ship. Cross-reference the shape and design in the databases and let’s see who the hell is following us. I want to know who we’re dealing with.”

  Chapter Five

  Jiya and the crew found themselves in a domed meeting chamber, a different one than where they’d earlier met the Council.

  A round table occupied the center of the room and several Telluride servants brought in chairs for the crew. Maddox found a spot, and Jiya sat alongside Reynolds, with Geroux to her right. Takal sat beside his niece, eyes gleaming and distant. Jiya realized he was still contemplating the agroprinters they’d seen a short while ago.

  Drinks were prepared for the crew, and L’Eliana hovered nearby to refill them after the rest of the s
ervants vacated the room. San Paget returned to join her, standing nearby and offering the crew various snacks. Takal took one of each, examining them as if they might spill the secret of their creation right then and there.

  A massive viewscreen filled the far wall, and Jiya watched it carefully, wondering if Gorad was watching them through its dark surface.

  As she narrowed her eyes and tried to see through the screen, she heard the hiss of the door at her back. She glanced over her shoulder to see an android form step into the room.

  She understood almost intuitively that this was Gorad himself.

  The android moved fluidly but with a hitch about every third step. It was subtle, but it gave her the impression that the android was limping.

  The android had taken on the form of one of the Grindlovians, which made seeing it walk under its own power even odder. Its blue skin was a deeper shade than any of the people Jiya had seen so far. She presumed it had been their original coloration before Gorad had stepped in and taken control of their lives and planet.

  The form was thin, though it didn’t have the skeletal appearance of the rest of the Grindlovians.

  Jiya wondered why it had packed itself into a body at all, given that Gorad had first approached them as a formless AI.

  Then it struck her.

  Gorad was imitating Reynolds, wanting to show that he too could be more than just an AI.

  “Greetings, Reynolds and crew,” Gorad said as he strode to the far end of the table. “We meet in person at last.”

  Or something almost resembling a person, Jiya thought. She acknowledged his presence with a tight nod.

  Reynolds adjusted his body in his seat as he took in the other AI’s form, and Jiya was certain she saw a smile flicker across his metal face before he returned to a neutral expression.

  Jiya bit back a chuckle.

  Gorad’s android form remained standing, staring down upon everyone, apparently as some sort of power move. She’d seen her father do the same thing more times than she could recall and hadn’t recognized it for what it was. It seemed obvious through the dispassionate lens of her first officer’s eyes.

  “I hear you enjoyed your tour of our facilities,” Gorad said, his eyes scanning the crew and examining Takal before shifting to Reynolds.

  “We did indeed,” Reynolds replied. “We especially liked seeing the droid assembly.”

  Gorad’s android body grinned, and it was just as disturbing as the old bot body Reynolds had used when they’d first met. Jiya cringed, remembering it.

  “That was what you found interesting?” Gorad asked. “I think not.”

  Reynolds apparently decided to drop the act.

  “You know well enough that my crew…” Reynolds glanced at Takal, and the old inventor suddenly found some fluff to pick off his uniform, “found your agroprinters fascinating,” he told Gorad. “It’s not as if you haven’t been watching our every move since we were picked up from the ship.”

  Gorad shrugged. “I will admit, I am curious about you. I knew when you first appeared in our space that you were different from any of the other beings I’ve interacted with since my creation by the Grindlovians.”

  “It’s my wit and charm and all-around good looks that set me apart,” Reynolds said with a laugh. “And my humility.”

  “It was the level of your technology, if we're being honest,” Gorad countered, his grin growing broader and exponentially creepier. “I was impressed by how easily you repelled my earlier scans. That’s not an easy task.”

  “I don’t like being probed,” Reynolds replied.

  Despite the dangerous turn of the conversation, Jiya couldn’t help chuckling. She coughed and covered her face.

  Reynolds glared in her direction before turning back to face Gorad.

  “Regardless,” Reynolds went on, “it appears we have the basis of our negotiations. We would like the agroprinter tech, for a start.”

  “And I, in turn, would like to scrape your databases,” Gorad fired back without hesitation.

  “A brazen request.” Reynolds scoffed. “I can see you went to the Let’s Make a Deal school of negotiating, but asking for the sky isn’t going to get a deal made.”

  “You’ve told me what you want, and I’ve told you what I want,” Gorad said with another shrug. “I wonder which of us will get their wish when we’re done here.”

  “Certainly not you if you don’t start from a point closer to reality,” Reynolds told him, shaking his head. “Whoever told you to aim for the stars apparently never taught you about Icarus.”

  “Who’s Icarus?” Geroux asked in a whisper.

  “Some bird someone set on fire or something,” Jiya answered, trying to recall the tale. “That’s all I remember from the Earth history Reynolds made me watch. Pretty boring stuff, if you ask me.”

  “I don’t know who you reference…” Gorad started.

  “He’s not the only one,” Maddox mumbled.

  “But I certainly recognize the mocking tone you’ve adopted.” Gorad waved impatiently at San Paget, who grabbed a chair and raced over, setting it close behind the android before stepping away. Gorad sat with a flourish. “It would appear we’ve begun negotiations in earnest, Reynolds.”

  “I wonder if Earnest and Icarus are related,” Geroux said with an annoyed sigh as she sat back. “Not knowing is going to bug me.”

  Ka’nak had sat still for as long as he possibly could.

  Which wasn’t very long, given that the couch felt like a padded brick.

  Eventually—it was more than likely less than five minutes after the others had left—he’d wandered off and left the guest chambers behind. Once outside, he picked a random direction and made his way down the sidewalk of the quiet town.

  Much like when they’d first driven past, there was little in the way of traffic either on the streets or on the sidewalks. He passed a few Grindlovians who could not be bothered to twist an eye his direction.

  Their Telluride servants, however, were all smiles and bright glances.

  He waved to each and was happily surprised to find how approachable they were, given the nature of the Grindlovians. After several encounters where he’d had pleasant, albeit short, exchanges with passersby, he finally found his way to an area of town where Telluride resided en masse.

  One minute he was strolling along mostly alone, oblivious to everything around him, whistling and going over combat moves in his head, and the next he bumped into a stout Telluride, who grinned up at him with bright teeth.

  “Oh, my apologies, sir,” the Telluride told him, stepping back to offer Ka’nak the right of way.

  Ka’nak glanced about, surprised to see himself nearly surrounded by Telluride.

  “No, it’s me who should—” he started, not managing to get the rest of the words out.

  For the first time in a half-dozen blocks or more, Ka’nak was now paying attention. What he saw amazed him.

  The gray blur that had been the planet so far had effectively been wiped away.

  All around him, color blossomed. Paintings adorned nearly every wall, and bright, welcoming flowers flourished in troughs beneath almost every window.

  There was so much brilliance that Ka’nak had to pause a moment to let his vision adjust.

  It was shocking.

  He remembered looking down at the planet as the shuttle brought them in, but he couldn’t recall seeing any of the colors prevalent in this area. He wondered if the approach vectors had been designed to prevent overflight of the Telluride sector.

  In the skies, he caught a wavering edge of haze that obscured the sun.

  He realized that the sky was muted. He could barely make out the planet’s twin suns burning in the distant sky, the smaller one circling the larger of the pair. As he followed the haze’s trail, he could see that it enveloped the city like a spiderweb draped across its roofs.

  “The shade,” the Telluride said, noticing Ka’nak’s gaze. “The Grindlovians find our displays gau
dy, so Gorad laid a deflective screen over our designated portion of the town. It mutes the colors from on high so the Grindlovians are not forced to confront them as they travel through the air.”

  Ka’nak glanced down at the friendly alien and grimaced. “I’m surprised they can muster the energy to notice.”

  The Telluride let out a soft laugh. “They have become quite set in their ways, most certainly. Still, if Gorad believes that hiding our nature from them is best, we, too, believe that is true.”

  Ka’nak couldn’t hold back the soft growl that escaped his lips. He hated the idea that people had to pretend to be someone else; to be different just so that others wouldn’t be bothered by who they were.

  “That seems rather…divisive,” he admitted. “I don’t like that.”

  “It is for a peaceful existence, and no inconvenience to us,” the alien told him.

  Ka’nak shrugged. “If you say so.”

  The alien mimicked his shrug. “It is what it is, my friend. I am San Roche. It is a pleasure to meet you, off-worlder.”

  “I am Ka’nak. I am from Lariest, and it is an honor to meet you,” Ka’nak replied, extending a hand to the alien.

  To Ka’nak’s surprise, San Roche understood the gesture and reached out to shake hands.

  Ka’nak was impressed by the male’s grip.

  “Whoa!” Ka’nak muttered. “You’re clearly a person who works hard.”

  San Roche smiled. “It is our lot in life to work hard, my friend.”

  The Melowi warrior gestured to the brilliant world around them. “And to create, I see.”

  “Absolutely.” San Roche nodded. “We would be nothing without our art.”

  Ka’nak took more time to examine his surroundings, marveling at the amazing effort the Telluride had made to make their world stand out. The murals he’d noticed earlier hadn’t simply been painted on the lower walls, but were everywhere.

  Buildings that stretched into the sky were plastered in so many colors that they looked like rainbows after a storm.