Trade World Saga

by Ken Pence

  Desiree and Tod turned around and started walking across the street when two more large Irixians stepped off the sidewalk to head them off. Tod and wife turned back and started walking back the way they had come and the largest Irixian they had ever seen stepped their way. They turned into an empty alley. They looked around while walking slowly.

  “This will do. Put your suit on unarmed offensive mode. I want to build our reputation. Do you want me to do anything?” Tod said knowing Desiree was the martial arts expert but knew his suit made him deadly also.

  “Just watch my back,” she said and acknowledged the cover units flying overhead on invisibility mode.

  The crowd of attackers moved into the alley. The smallest one – stood at the entrance to the blind alley to keep anyone else from coming in.

  Desiree turned to the would-be attackers. “What can we do for you?”

  “We want to know what you said to Retra? We want to know more about you? You will come with us?” said the next to largest one.

  “I do not think so, shit eater,” she said.

  “You insult me – you alien slut. I think we do more than carry you for questioning. I am curious about your mating habits.”

  “I want you to know that we are from Earth and we are warriors. Try something if you think you are big enough. You will not be curious much longer.”

  “Females talk too much even on your planet too I see,” he said as he stepped forward to slap her. He outweighed her by fifty kilos at least and had a knife in his weak hand. His arm snapped forward to deliver an incapacitating strike and hit only air. Desiree ducked under the strike easily and hit her attacker in the chest. It would have killed a human but knocked the air out of the Irixian and he dropped the knife. He stood there gasping for air as his compatriots jumped in to pinion her arms. They both carried knives. She slapped them both off their feet with lightning fast strikes and she laughed at them in as best an imitation of the squeaking she had heard earlier when Retra had laughed.

  The fourth attacker was more cautious and pulled out a small laser which he twisted in the light to intimidate her. She laughed again and kicked and broke his Irixian wrist. The pistol went flying. She then stepped forward and kicked with the edge of her foot. She broke his leg at the joint with a sickening crack. He screamed. The fifth Irixian guarding the alley turned around and noticed the disarray of his partners and drew out a laser and shot Desiree in the chest. He was instantly vaporized by one of the invisible progeny guarding them. The first attacker looked around him as he caught his breath and tried to run out of the alley. Irixian troopers, who swooped in to save the Earth beings, caught him.

  “We are here to protect you,” shouted the first Irixians in an obviously practiced dramatic exclamation. They restrained all in the alley with heavy metal shackles and marched them off – the ones who could walk. Tod and Desiree were interested in where this would lead. The troopers did not immediately begin questioning the subjects but they were initially hesitant restraining the humans when they saw the disarray of the attackers.

  Tod stated. “We really don’t need protection from petty criminals. I think they must have found out that we know where the Ylee harvest the lamlee they sell your government. Do you think that may be the reason they attacked us?”

  The Irixian troopers had some lines they had been told to deliver and they were going to get them out no matter what they found. “We are here to protect you and your female.”

  Tod laughed in the best Irixian squeal mimic of a laugh as he could do and said. “Protect us from what? Petty criminals. Earth beings are warriors. We do not need weapons against hand weapons. I let my wife, my female; take care of those attackers. Ask the attackers. They did only have knives and laser weapons. My children can handle more than that.”

  The Irixians took them to Government House – for their protection.

  An Irixian council member came into the room containing Tod and Desiree. The two were sitting on a bench with one-way glass on one wall. They were sitting – passionately kissing when the official came in. He saw that they had removed their own large metal restraints. He jerked back when he entered but he motioned two Irixian troopers with rifles to accompany him. They came into the room and he stood over the Earthers.

  Tod kissed Desiree on the nose and then deigned to turn his attention toward the official and smiled. The official stood there in the classic whoever speaks first loses and Desiree chuckled and brushed her hair back.

  “You must be the one of the council members doing the bidding of the Ylee. What can we do for you?” she said.

  He seemed completely flustered. “You are under threat from criminals here,” he said. “I am councilman Thiacham.”

  She laughed and looked at Tod who was busy inspecting his faux nails like they were dirty – he was grinning. He was letting her know she was doing fine and was getting a ‘go for it girl.’ She loved him so. He was so smart for a man. “We are in no way threatened by your so called criminals. Your troopers were ordered to move in as soon as the attackers tried to attack us. Do you think the Ylee want you to question us because we now know where they harvest their lamlee – the lamlee they sell you? They get it from a very close star system to here. Did you know that?”

  The council member sputtered. “We don’t know what happened in that alley but we must hold you for questioning.”

  “Maybe we can help you with that,” Tod said. “Desiree. Why don’t you play that attack for the council member? Do you mind dimming the lights just a bit? I give you my word we will sit here passively while we show you recording of the attack.”

  “You have recordings?” he asked.

  “Yes. Our race records all activities. We can be held accountable for harming others. We were excited to learn we were not to carry weapons on this moon. We are a race of warriors and enjoy violent conflict…quite exciting. Made me feel young again. I am really just a scientist and not a full-time warrior so it was fun for me to watch.”

  “You just watched?” the council member stammered.

  “There were only five with hand weapons. With such odds it would have been unfair for me to step in.”

  Thiacham was about to dim the lights slightly when he reached up and touched the small earpiece. “We need to leave the lights bright in here.”

  “Would you tell the two Ylee and the Irixian behind the glass that humans could see them quite clearly?” Desiree said. “They may want to see this recording too.”

  Thiacham touched his earpiece and told the troopers to dim the lights.

  Desiree held up her Dex and it played the entire scene with edits from Tod’s dex also. It included the audio. The troopers groaned when they heard the crack of one of the attackers legs. They were shocked at how easy it looked. The video was going fine until it showed the fifth attacker shoot Desiree directly in the chest and then the attacker dissolved with molecular disruptor fire.

  Thiacham spoke loudly at this point. “Explain the fact that you were not to have any weapons. That attacker was hit with a disruptor. What do you have to say for yourself?”

  “It was fun. Thank you for providing the attackers. It reminded me of my trials against multiple armed attackers with knives. We have to do that when we are children. We lose a lot of the slower ones but the gene pool gets stronger,” Desiree lied.

  “What about that disruptor?” Thiacham asked.

  “Oh that. We don’t get the nano-protectors unless we travel off-planet. You have to be licensed to get them. Some of us did get to use them against the Allung but they aren’t for everyone.”

  “Nano-protectors?” Thiacham queried.

  “Oh those. They are a cloud of particles that surround us where we can concentrate and produce a disruption beam. Tell the Ylee to step to the side of the glass.”

  Thiacham spoke quietly and said he had told them.

  Desiree motioned for them to move a bit more like she could see clearly through the glass. She actually had visual through a nan
o-bot that had entered the glass observation booth when the Ylee had entered. Desiree sent text to the hidden progeny in the room with them. She told him to dissolve the glass when she nodded. She nodded and the glass dissolved in a large circle.

  “The hard part is concentrating on how much area to disintegrate. That is why only a few of us are licensed,” she said convincingly. “We are in no danger from you. We generally respond when threatened with deadly force. We will use whatever force we need to overcome the threat. We decided to eliminate the Allung because they were threatening all the trade in our area of space. It is so much more profitable to trade instead of fight,” she said. “Don’t you agree,” she said in the clicking ultrasonic language of the Ylee as she walked up the large hole in the glass and faced the Ylee huddled there.

  “You bluff human. We know the Allung were in that end of the spiral arm just last year,” one of the Ylee said. “We can see some type of being in the room with you. You spin lies well. Your prowess against the crude attacks shows you are still near your primitive animal nature. We manufacture the lamlee ourselves.”

  Desiree laughed. “You have been telling everyone that so long – you get them from inside a time enclosure and don’t even know how to enter them unless they are inactive.”

  Both the Ylee turned beet red in anger and spread their tentacles in an attack display. They snapped their beaks at her.

  “Do not threaten me. Never threaten me or I will feed your tentacles to the lessor fishes,” she said.

  The closest Ylee snapped a tentacle out to grab her but half that tentacle dissolved before it got close. The other Ylee changed to an ashen gray color of the wall behind it and wrapped its tentacles around the injured one. They moved out of the room quickly. The other Ylee was supporting the injured Ylee. The Irixian in the observation room obviously did not understand what happened. He was pressed against the far wall and had defecated on the floor.

  Tod turned to Thiacham. “You might not have understood them. We thought they produced the lamlee too. It appears they gather them – and not far from here. They have some weapons that would defeat you in space. They are not omnipotent.”

  “What would you have us do? We have to have lamlee to produce viable shipping and electronics.”

  “How many lamlee do they offer you – every four years maybe?”

  “Yes. Yes. They do seem to have more to offer every four years. They offer about five thousand. Their prices have gone up astronomically the last decade. We cannot go against them,” Thiacham said. “You may leave tomorrow. We’ll stay with them.”

  “Just don’t go to war for them. There are other sources of lamlee at much cheaper rates. Fight us and we will not tell you where they harvest them.”

  “Harvest them. You have said that twice.”

  “They are not the ones that make them. We are here to track down the Makers,” Tod said.

  “The Makers. I have never heard that term used before. You think you can find them?” Thiacham asked.

  “Yes. Just do not let your people fight against us – not for the Ylee,” Tod said.

  “I will try to convince them it is in our best interest to be neutral. It would be more profitable you said?”

  “Not only more profitable but it would not affect your longevity. Battle is costly and tends to burn resources,” Tod said as he casually walked out of the building like he had been in it many times before. Thiacham did not know Tod and Desiree were getting directions from the invisible progeny who were paralleling their route.

  They came out a side door and walked out onto the sidewalk.

  “It is a long distance to your hotel. I will arrange transportation,” Thiacham said.

  Tod gave Desiree a hand sign. “We do not really need transportation. Thank you anyway. Visit us at the hotel if you need us,” he said as Tod and Desiree shot up into the sky. They set their speed so they wouldn’t just appear to disappear. Tod wanted Thiacham to see them fly – not disappear.

  ***

  They arrived back at the hotel in moments and prepared to bug out. They turned their suits to invisible mode and left through the small patios from each room. They were guided to the shuttle above them. They piled in as a second shuttle picked up the progeny. They sped to their ships. Irixian troopers and an Ylee ship were adjacent to their landing area. Several heavy military vehicles were there in support of the troops.

  “We can’t get back on the ships without having moments of vulnerability,” Tod said. He contacted Commodore Williams on board the Antares. “Can you divert their attention? We can’t go into space in the shuttles. If the Ylee uses their dimensional pulse it would kill us all. Octi can’t use it either but we’d all be protected if on a lamlee coated ship. I’ll bet they have to pull all their ships away but the one using it – that would be the signal.”

  ***

  Commodore Williams got the messages from the shuttle and immediately put his thirty-nine ships at battle stations. He directed them to move to a different orbit and spread them out quite a bit. He broadcast to the Ylee ships using their language instead of Trade. He started to have his ships jump out of system and back in in different numbers and different positions.

  “We wish to talk,” Commodore Williams transmitted to the Ylee.

  ***

  “The commander of the humans is calling,” said the Ylee communications officer to the commander of the Ylee ships in orbit.

  “What does he want?”

  “He says he just wants to talk but he says in an ancient dialect of Ylee,” said the comm officer.

  “That is interesting. Put him on.”

  “Commander, we should not waste time fighting. Your people have had a monopoly on lamlee for a long time. We know this. We also know you do not make them – you harvest them. We also know where you harvest them,” Andrew Williams said and then told his people on the surface to make for their ships. “We will not try to stop you in areas you control. Realize others can harvest them also.”

  The Ylee communications officer signaled the commander. The commander told him to mute his side. “Commander, the ship on the surface reports two shuttles have just entered the grounded ships. What do you want us to do?”

  “Tell them on the surface to back off. This may be the gravest threat to the Ylee since the drought. These humans are just guessing. Put the human back on. Turn on visual,” the Ylee commander said to his comm officer. “We see your surface ships preparing to leave. Will you leave this area of space?” he said to Andrew.

  “No. We will establish trade relations with these people.”

  “I can destroy your ships,” the Ylee commander said.

  “Maybe. We can prevent the Ylee from getting to the site fifty-five light years from here where you harvest lamlee every four years. Do you want to jeopardize that harvest? It is time again to do so,” Andrew said.

  “I will let your ships leave the surface and return to your other ships. To show good faith – I will just bring my ship so we may talk in peace. All I ask is for you to array your ships so they are not jumping in and out of the system. I am sure we can come to final solution for this problem,” the Ylee commander said to Andrew.

  “That is an excellent idea. I am sure we can use this as an opportunity to persuade you. I have ordered my ships to meet us,” Andrew said.

  ***

  “What are the Ylee doing?” John Brattor asked.

  “They are pulling their ships back and we have been ordered to rendezvous with the rest of our ships,” Tod said. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “You know they are just preparing to use their dimensional pulse weapon don’t you?” John asked.

  “Commodore Williams knows that. I think our coated ships will protect us – theoretically at least. Octi had shown us how it works. We haven’t duplicated the weapon in our ships yet because it tends to ruin the ship that uses it. Octi said it came about when a power plant on an Ylee ship overloaded when they were starting transit. When th
ey were able to reconstruct the event – they realized it could be used as a weapon,” Tod said.

  “What does it do?” John asked.

  “It projects a dimensional pulse – like a transit tsunami that thrusts any ship in space. It is violent for ships in the open and scatters them. It is like a low velocity transit.”

  “So Commodore Williams is putting us all in danger of getting killed on a technological defense that we have never tested,” John said.

  “Yep…that’s pretty much it.”

  “Shit,” John said as they approached their sister ships.

  “Yep,” Tod said. “That’s pretty much it.”

  ***

  The Ylee commander had ordered all other Ylee ships to move on the other side of the large gas planet their large moon orbited.

  “Commander,” said the Ylee weapons officer. “Our weapon is charged and all Ylee ships are in the clear. There are forty two ships arrayed before us.”

  “Prepare to engage at my signal. I want to see them up to the moment they cease to be a problem,” said the commander.

  “Commander,” asked the weapons officer. “I have never used this weapon but I understand you have used it once before. How much damage should we expect to our ship?”

  “We were only disabled one day. I am sure we can do better.”

  “Yes, Commander. The humans told the Irixians that they have sixty more ships. Is that true?”

  “They lie. They bluff. I think that is a bluff. They said they destroyed the Allung. We faced the Allung for thousands of years. I doubt they defeated them in such a short time.”

  “Commander, the Irixians are said to have evidence that the humans did destroy the Allung. They have proof.”

  “Do not worry. We will use another ship to destroy the next sixty ships as well if necessary. Communications officer, contact the humans and make sure we have a video link.”

  ***