by Ken Pence
“No problem. Your escort will show you how to adjust the gravity, lighting, and humidity in your quarters. They should be set to Tros standards.” They decided not to tell them about the time dilation settings and set them for ten hours for every one – they could get a long rest before being questioned.
Lee turned to the remaining Lemsa and the Hllumff.
“Your quarters are being set for you to your home planet standards. You are not slaves any more but our guests instead. We have only to get away from this place to give you your freedom. We will need your help later to plan the destruction of these Allung. Is this agreeable?”
The newly released slaves were in shock but mild sedatives had been added to their food and drink so they would recover slowly and not report us – Stockholm Syndrome Lee thought reveling in the unfamiliar thoughts.
***
The ERF exit from the orbiting trade center was orderly – they didn’t have complete details but they had hacked into the trade station plans and retrieved most of the plans. They still didn’t know the extent of the Allung involvement but it wasn’t something they would give up on easily. There was no telling how many Toi and others were held prisoner. They started away from the dock and were hailed by navigation. There were queries and their permission to depart had been delayed. The ships responded saying they had their sustenance and would return later with more to trade. They thanked nav control and said they needed to leave because of molting…whatever they could come up with…they leapt.
***
Cetosme looked at the departing ships. “I don’t like this,” he said. He was the highest-ranking Allung ever to reach this area. It was the reason the Allung already here could take over the trading port with the support from the twenty high-tech Allung ships he had brought when fleeing the battle at Earth. Those Earth beings would be the death of his kind – the council had been so shortsighted, as to think they were not the threat they were – then they had pulled his support. Well – the Allung council paid for that lack of vision. He was going to restart in this area and in come these Ylee from a system they had not heard from in 1,200 years.
He was trying to decide whether to try to stop those ships when they disappeared off his scans. They could jump and they were possibly Ylee. He held a few Ylee from this system but they and not given any information. These new ones had bought slaves – that was unusual – maybe they weren’t Ylee – they hadn’t acted like Ylee but everything they said made sense. Something wasn’t right about them. They seemed tricky – like Earthers had been tricky but they had been in ships unlike anything he had seen around Earth. These ships had water-based life forms in them – they was totally unlike anything from Earth. The Toi had sent back images and they were water-based. Their suits were water-based. The ship they were in was shaped like reports of Ylee ships in the past but the occupants of those ships were not helpless pacifists – far from it. They had severely injured an Allung with one unarmed strike. What would they have done if provoked? He shuddered when he thought of their uses for the slaves – food – as medium to grow slugs …uugh. He grew up near water but he would put more ships on alert around the trade center – he didn’t trust those things.
***
To say the reunion of Leiita and LeiLei when they returned to the expedition was touching would be understating it by a lot. Leiita saw her sister upon stepping out of the ship in the docking bay of the Phoenix, the renovated Allung battleship. LeiLei, who was still wearing her flawless diamond necklace, diamond earrings, had a knee buckling shock. She squealed like a child and launched herself across the room to embrace her sister and they sat there purring and nuzzling each other for the longest time. Their tears of joy poured from their eyes.
Leiita could hardly contain herself and Joel just stood back and directed them to a private lounge so they could catch up. He ordered some of LeiLei’s favorite foods and drinks to be sent to the lounge also and gave them their time – he figured it would be a while to explain all that had happened.
Captain Shuler welcomed the remainder of the freed slaves: Lemsa, Tros, and Hllumff in their native language. They were in shock – they thought they were lost forever and had given up hope. Captain Shuler assigned personnel, of their own race, to them to interview them about their capture. He wanted to separate them and get the most information they could about the trade center and the happenstance of their capture. He expected the most from the female Tros captain and sent Rett to question her. The new Lemsa recruits were eager to show their worth and get into some action. Captain Shuler expected they’d get as much action they cared for shortly. Fierce battle is something young males dream about – veterans remember the fear and friends lost.
***
Rett had never felt like this before. This small female Tros was a captain of a star ship…how unusual…it was not possible yet here she was. How could this have happened? How could she command a trade ship? What had driven her to do this? He did not know what to say.
“My name is Lieutenant Commander Rett…call me Rett,” he said shocked at his own lack of restraint. She did not seem shocked by his naming though.
“I am Captain Rempla Ma Bebla,” she said giving her full name. “You may call me Rempla. I am so glad your people saved us. The Allung were horrible. We had made a fortune and were headed back home when we were captured.”
“Tell me about it…Rempla…it is a nice name,” Rett said ashamed to have mentioned her name again. What were these feelings that were coursing through his system making him so jittery? He wanted to run around snorting and stomping. “Tell me your recent history and then work back about how you became a ship’s captain.”
Rett felt shocked. He had been ordered to get information about the trade center and the capture by the Allung. He had not been asked to get her life story. He jerked back from his reverie to listen carefully as she told her story.
“We had just traded for a large supply of lamlee from the Ylee traders. We had traded a shipment of rare, live, multicolored corals from a nearby, uninhabited planet. The corals were beautiful and had no stress bleaching. We had five different species and the Ylee traded us a shipping cube full of lamlee. They asked us where we harvested the coral and we asked them where they harvested the lamlee. They asked us how we knew and indicated the Flower,” she explained.
“Where is the Flower?” Rett asked.
“Oh…on the Ylee charts there is a region of stars they call the flower. I think they mean it is the region 3,200 light years from here where there are millions of young stars. They would not tell us the exact location.”
“Go ahead. I did not mean to interrupt.”
“It is fine…Rett…Let me explain how we were captured.” She paused and tilted her head up and closed her eyes. “We were preparing to leave when, about twenty, large Allung ships appeared and demanded we surrender. They said they were Allung and were going to harvest this station – harvest was the Trade word they used. They destroyed two ships using lasers more powerful than I have ever seen. Ten other ships attacked them – some Ylee and some were traders. They would be there one second and the next the Trader ships would be cut in half. They destroyed them all in a few seconds. They then landed with many Toi troops.”
She continued. “Those ground forces were teams of Toi commanded by an Allung. They killed my first officer – a fine young Hllumff when he didn’t immediately put on a collar. Those Toi troops must have been slave troops too because they all had collars. They then started questioning everyone. We hid the lamlee in a larger crate of fertilizer we were taking to a colony.”
“How long ago were you captured?” Rett asked.
“I lost track of time. I was separated from the rest of the crew and they kept asking me about the lamlee. Someone on my crew or the Ylee must have told them but only my first officer and myself knew where it was. I did not answer your question,” she said and hung her head.
Rett reached forward and caressed her head. He felt a surge of – urg
es – as he smelled her scent. “Go ahead,” he said visibly shaken by the touch of her skin.
“It was about 24 or 25 days ago. They quit taking me to the shock questioning after a few days and they started stripping the station. They killed a lot of the traders they thought were too old or had no worth as technicians or servants. Then your people came and bought us. They were scary and when they said they were buying us to grow food – in us – all our hope died. Then we were brought here – to safety.”
Rett could not help himself and reached out to clasp her hand. “I think it is not all that safe here now.”
“What do you mean? We have escaped and the Allung are preparing to leave. They will not do us any harm,” she said.
“We will attack them and attempt to free all the slaves. We will try to get your ship back. We will not let beings live in slavery if we have the power to stop them.”
“You are very brave…Rett. May I stay on the ship with you? I feel safer here. If I die rapidly I am not afraid. I do not want to live in slavery,” she said.
“Rest here. I will send some of my favorite foods and you rest,” Rett said feeling very protective.
***
Commodore Williams brought in all his senior staff and they watched the edited interviews with the recently released slaves. Tod had edited them in accelerated time as the group was gathering.
“Commander Schroeder will give us a summary,” Andrew said.
Tod started right away. “We have approximately twenty Allung ships – we suspect it is headed by Cetosme. They have jump capability. They can punch holes in our ships except the coated ones. We know they have the capability to use a mass amount of slaves on us. LeiLei, work with Steve and see if you can use the collars we took off the survivors we just rescued. We want a way to release them. I want a contingent of progeny to try to release the Ylee and transmit the release codes…to do that we have to get close. Here is what I want to do. Please speak up when you have suggestions or you can think of other ways – anything.”
The meeting lasted two hours as they laid out plans and counter strategies. It got heated at times but it came down to – “Okay people. Thank you for your input. We will use John’s idea with the Octi, LeiLei and Steve’s research with the collars, and Lee’s plan. Xilatoi – I want you to escort everyone off the station, as we may have to blow that too. Radiation may be an issue so suits as high as you set them and still move. We’ll use the slicers on the escape routes. Rally B for fallback – Rally C is if they cut us up and we need to lead them away from the colonists with the expedition.”
Tod followed his statement. “Get twelve hours and meet back here in two hours. We want to hit on a station sleep cycle. Good luck people. Tod – transmit the redacted form of the meeting to the expedition. Assign the frigates to defend the expedition – they have the legs but don’t have punch to fight these bad boys. These are the ones that gave us the most fight at Earth and these escaped. They will do this ‘til we stop them.”
“Preaching to the choir, Commander. Seems that Rett found something that interests him more than grape juice,” Andrew said.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Tod said.
“He’s been strutting and stomping around. Building a head of steam. I think he and the captain are bonding as we speak. I bet he has the time dilation set to max too.”
Trade Center Trouble
Cetosme was relaxing in his quarters when his communications panel chimed. “Yes. What it is? Better be good to get me up in my rest period.”
“A ship has just jumped in close proximity to the trade center and is broadcasting an automated distress call. The ship is not answering hails and has obvious blast damage,” said the Allung duty officer.
“Which direction?” Cetosme asked.
“It appears to have come from deeper toward the galactic center. We have all ships on alert. I have sent several ships to board it. We started getting a video message.”
“What was the message?” Cetosme said.
“It was in an obscure dialect, Irixian. The creature in the video was definitely Irixian. One of the Toi here speaks the language and I showed him the video to translate. He said it looked like them. They are tall and incredibly thin with four thin arms. He said the creature was saying they were under attack by two Allung frigate class with powerful lasers. He said they had jumped out of nowhere when his ship was leaving a small colony of Irixians 1,270 light years from here. He said they were set to visit the Ylee here every 10 years and he was set to jump already.”
“You believe him?” Cetosme asked.
“We captured him and searched his ship. It had been stripped. It’s amazing he got it working but the Toi said they are supposed to be master engineers. We captured it. The captain said – it does speak Trade – it said it hid away within the ship to escape capture. It said it must have been bad in a previous life to have such luck.”
Cetosme appreciated the comment. Maybe he could get something from this creature. “Treat it well. Put it with the Ylee. We will try giving it some freedom. That worked with the Tros that helped us figure out the Ylee jump technology.”
“Is he the Tros that destroyed the frigate while making his escape in a shuttle?” asked the duty officer.
Cetosme was angry. “Dock that ship. Put the captain in with the Ylee. I want to be off this station in five days. I am not worried about Allung ships 1,270 light years away. It just means we have more that escaped our last battles. We will have any join us as we rebuild. Get back to duty. Cancel the alert.”
“Yes, Senior,” said the officer.
***
Lee Post was hauled to the cell with the Ylee. He broadcast his position as he moved. There were three Ylee in tanks in a large room. The Allung never considered that the lockers and wiring they searched on the Irixian ship were actually progeny. They returned to their human forms as soon as the Allung finished their search and docked at the center. Lee Post, in Irixian form, went to the monitors and added a bit of himself to the edge of the camera. He waited for a few seconds and then put an arm – tentacle – into one tank after another.
The Ylee rose to the surface and looked at where the cameras were located. “They will only see me sitting in the corner acting despondent. They will hear nothing,” he said in Ylee. “I am here to get you off this station but I require your cooperation. My compatriots will be here shortly and he had no more said that when the door dissolved and in came three progeny. “We have enough lamlee to form three suits. A very large progeny came over and pulled out a section of his chest and put it in the water and touched it. Think of the best suit you could imagine. The lamlee began to form over first one Ylee and successively on the others as the process was repeated.”
The Ylee emerged from their tanks. “We will not leave. This trading post is our life. You are ordered to destroy the Allung and then report to me,” it ordered.
“Hardly,” Lee Post laughed and turned back to human form. “Get your squiggly ass moving behind the one that gave you the material for your suits.”
“You cannot talk to us like that – we are your masters,” said the Ylee that was turning bright red.
“No. You are not. You will be a dead master if you do not follow him – Now!” he said giving the Ylee a shove and he realized it was true. The progeny were their own masters now.
***
“Ready…on my mark…Mark,” Commodore Andrew Williams ordered his troops to attack. They were going to destroy the Allung. The slicers had been programmed to attack ships not broadcasting the proper friend/foe code. LeiLei and Steve had discovered the expedient ploy the Allung had done with slave collars. They had switched the destruct, punishment, and release circuits. They expected the slaves had had them all changed as the collars of the slaves that Octi had bought. There should be twenty-five progeny on the center. They would try to get back to the captured ship – killing any Allung they could find on the way and Andrew knew Lee Post would go out of his way – o
n the way.
***
Cetosme was awakened by the alarm on his communicator. He grabbed it and keyed it open. “Most Senior, we are under attack. Forty large ships and a planetoid have attacked. Many are Allung design.”
“Try to contact them and tell them we are Allung also. Tell them I am Most Senior Cetosme of the Council. Prepare my ship for escape,” he ordered and ran as fast as he could for his ship. He heard the whine of disruptors and realized their security had been breached. He also heard multiple pops and passed a whole team of dead Toi with exploded control collars.
His ship seemed a long distance away but he always kept a team on duty there. His extra caution was the reason he had outlived others on the council. He made it to his ship and they were away before a few minutes had elapsed.
“Most senior? They outnumber us almost two to one. Those remote weapons are jumping through our ships. We have already lost six. They jump away before we can jump through them. These use the same tactics as the Earth Regulatory Force,” said his tactical officer.
“Fool. These are the Earth Regulatory Force. They are using our captured ships. They have somehow followed us here.” A slicer weapon suddenly hit his ship.
“Most Senior, the weapon has disabled drive and jump capability.”
“Act like you are adrift. Then do not act like powered craft,” he ordered. “Get that repaired.”
“Most Senior, we have detected a signal being broadcast by the attacking ships. This may be what is preventing their weapons from attacking their own ships.”
“Can you jam their broadcast?” Cetosme asked.
“Yes, Most Senior. Doing that now.”
***
From the Journal of Susan Kama Siriluk