Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 2 - Maveen Offer (11 page)

The captain offered a wry smile that the pilot nervously returned before the senior Trader began to speak again.

‘Now the two damaged ships are to be brought back here undisturbed during the cover of darkness. You will ensure that the holds of these ships are not to be opened or their contents removed in any way. I can tell you that both ships will weigh at least twenty percent more than you think they should.’

Marenkestat wisely refrained from making a comment, and the captain spoke again after a few moments as he detected the constraint in the pilot.

‘Marenkestat, I do not like this either, but we have a new agreement with the Maveen to honour, and I intend to keep my word. Now Garendestat will be here early tomorrow morning and we will have a meeting then if you have returned at that time. You have your orders and I will await the return of your team.’

Within fifteen minutes Marenkestat was in sneak ship seven leading the three other sneak ships southwest to the new location. The four ships flew at roughly three times the speed of sound for half an hour. The pilots soon detected human ships well ahead of them at the location of their original landing site. Fortunately the new location of the damaged sneak ships was over the horizon from the human ships. Since it was now night time and the sneak ships were cloaked, Marenkestat knew that it would be unlikely that the human ships would be detecting them at any stage.

After the sneak ships had shed their transit speed, they slowly settled into the water, and sank towards the crippled sneak ships on the North West section of the underwater plateau. Inside the holds of each of the sneak ships, two Traders suited in special armoured and shielded waldo units patiently awaited their arrival at the destination.

The pilots were careful to monitor the increasing water pressure on the shields of the sneak ships as they approached the sunken sneak ships. Once the two ships were identified, two ships each approached a single wrecked ship. A wire controlled magnetic grapnel was fired by each ship and secured next to the pylon mount points on the sneak ships as Marenkestat spoke to the two engineers in the special waldo units.

‘I am extending the shields in front of the hold so make sure you do not fall into the shields, and try to get the cables attached as soon as possible.’

The engineers exited the sneak ships and quickly set down large attachment cables along the grapnel lines. The cables had autonomous drones that accessed the pylon mount points and secured the cables into the mount points on the damaged ships. All the engineers had to do then were to order the drones at the other ends of the cables to attach to the pylon mounting points of their own sneak ship. As the engineers re-entered the sneak ships, Marenkestat gave a simple order to the other sneak ships.

‘Now ease higher slowly to take up the tension and we will get some height off the sea floor.’

The combined mass of two sneak ships per damaged ship easily moved each damaged sneak ship, and the ungainly mass of space ships slowly moved north east as they ascended in the water. Marenkestat looked over the status reports of each ship as they reached the surface, then he issued further orders.

‘Now we will repeat the same slow lifting move as earlier. Just keep up the tension as we transfer to atmospheric flight.’

Within an hour the four sneak ships were flying in the air slowly back to the main ship with their cargo securely slung beneath them.

                                                            ***

Chapter 6

Douglas Stoneham was still on the Southern Cross and on the phone again after Steve had rung him just moments earlier. Steve sounded tired and Douglas knew that it was getting very late now.

‘Steve we should keep this conversation brief, as we all need to get some rest for a busy day tomorrow. I have a few specific points I want to mention to you and we can talk again first thing in the morning.’

Steve was grateful for this consideration as he replied.

‘Thanks Douglas, we have had a long and interesting day for sure. Now we are communicating with Garendestat, and later other members of his race, they don’t seem hostile. I do not think that they intend to colonise our planet. Actually their galactic race name means ‘trader’. They are an intergalactic race of traders, and it is remarkable on how quickly Garendestat is learning our language.’

Douglas evaluated this information on the aliens for a few seconds as he replied.

‘So we can work out a deal with them maybe. I know that your Prime Minister has specified that we now try to negotiate with these Traders. Though it would be useful to know the possible situation we are getting into if we do trade with them. Do you know what we can supply them with at all Steve?’

Steve already knew how he would answer that question.

‘I initially think they will trade primarily so we will leave them in peace. I think we might be able to offer them food, mainly vegetables and their extracts, from the delight Garendestat took in his meal tonight. Hopefully the meal will not make him unwell overnight.’

Douglas considered this news silently, and he decided that Steve had to know his real concerns.

‘Steve, one of my team members is advocating that we seize all the aliens and all their ships. Ian Mitchin considers that unless we lock them down we face an unacceptable risk of another pandemic. He also thinks that main ship represents a huge windfall to the human race and should be taken at all costs. I can see his point as it would save generations of research.’

Steve could not believe what he was hearing, though he also understood the logic too well.

‘Douglas it is the same type of opportunistic thinking that drove the US 5
^th
fleet to attack. For all we know the Traders could then treat us as permanently hostile, and we would then have to fight them for generations in space. I am strongly against this idea and we cannot allow this to occur.’

Douglas stated his agreement to Steve’s opinion as he again continued.

‘Steve I wholeheartedly agree with you, we also know that another race came here with them and they represent an unknown quantity. There is also the fact that the Traders and these other aliens drove off the US 5
^th
fleet. I seen reports that state their main ship did not fire her weapons in the battle. I consider they are being restrained until we push them past the brink, then their response will be powerful.’

Steve listened and responded with solid observations of his own.

‘When we get to the main ship tomorrow, we need to ask a series of questions Douglas. We need to know the what, when, why and how of their arrival on our planet. Specifically we have to disarm the possible threats of pandemic and a pitched battle for their ship as soon as we can. Also I want to know more of the second race who came with the Traders and if they represent a threat.’

Douglas found he agreed with the observations as he replied.

‘Also Steve we need to know what we can get as a concession from the Traders for letting them keep their ship and assisting them. Basically explain it as being concerned about our lack of technology when compared to the galactic races that we know now exists out in the galaxy.’

The two men then finished their conversation and an exhausted Steve went to bed. As he lay alongside the sleeping form of Samantha, he replayed the conversation with Douglas for several minutes before he fell asleep. In the storage locker, Garendestat slept soundly the sleep of utter exhaustion after his rescue and the long afternoon on the rear deck of the Aurora Discovery.

                                                            ***

Marenkestat timed the slow flight north east back to the main ship and estimated that if he slowed speed slightly yet again the four ships would arrive on the island just after the local sunrise. The pilot made this choice as well as to limit the use of thrusters, as the lifting operation was burning large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen fuel. The four Trader pilots routinely called their status, mainly fuel and weight loadings, as they steadily flew their inert cargoes to the morning landing. Marenkestat again looked at the relayed mass indicator readings for each of the two damaged sneak ships. He knew that most of the seawater had quickly drained from rents in the hulls, and he also marvelled that the fusion power plants on each ship still functioned.

‘Captain Narindestat was correct about the damaged sneak ships’ he considered, as the two ships were easily twenty percent heavier than he would have expected. The pilot knew that the captain had given direct instructions not to go near the sneak ships’ holds until the sneak ships had landed on the island. So he knew he would have to restrain his curiosity until that moment.

Marenkestat was also concerned about the damage evident about the front of the two sneak ships, and he had earlier focused cameras towards the affected areas of each ship. The cameras showed that the sneak ships enhanced sensor arrays had been sliced out of the ships and then removed. However the pilot knew that this was not the prime cause of damage to both ships. He soon verified that the initial long descent to the sea bed had damaged the ships structurally to the point of them both now being scrap.

‘So what just are you up to Captain Narindestat?’

Marenkestat considered privately to himself as the collection of sneak ships continued the slow flight to the north east.

                                                            ***

Commander Jane Walker sat quietly in her command chair, and rubbed her eyes, for the day had both been unusual and long. Both Australian frigates were still to the south and south east of the Abrolhos islands, and had made a point of heading east to be further away from the islands at sunset. To possibly avoid alarming the Traders, the two frigates were keeping their patrol circuits and speeds stable. The ships headed in a small patrol loop at ten knots and then reversed course every two hours.

Jane had also spoken to Douglas Stoneham earlier in the evening on the satellite phone, and was now aware of the questions that Steve and Douglas had raised between them earlier.

‘Hopefully tomorrow will bring new answers.’ She thought calmly to herself.

Jane considered writing a few final reports, before she turned in for the night, when the bemused communications officer walked up to her with one of the satellite phones.

‘Captain I have an important call for you and you need to take this privately apparently.’

Jane suppressed a start of annoyance, and slowly took the satellite phone into the rear chart room, usually the province of the now off duty navigation officer, and sat down.

‘Commander Jane Walker, how can I help you?’

‘Commander, I am Ian Ridge and I need your assistance with several matters please.’

Jane was truly impressed and awed, as it was not every day your prime minister rang for an evening chat.

‘Yes sir, how can I help you tonight?’

She listened avidly as Ian Ridge spoke again.

‘Jane, we now have an interesting situation with the aliens and all those ships, and I would like some information from you before I speak with Steve Greene in the morning. You have served with him for several years, so I want you to tell me as much as you can about him please.’

Jane considered that it must now be past midnight in Canberra as she replied to the prime minister.

‘Well sir, he has an excellent service record as you probably know already. He is definitely a leader, is not afraid of justified personal risk, and is a man of honour and integrity on a personal level. To keep it simple sir, I could not think of a better man in this situation.’

The prime minister replied to Jane’s comments with gratitude.

‘Jane, please call me Ian during this call as there is a very personal element to my questions. Now he is not afraid of combat from what I can tell, though I am obviously no expert here. But I have to ask one important question. Do you think he would deal with the aliens, these Traders, if he felt they posed a real risk to humanity?’

Jane instantly replied as she knew the answer already.

‘Ian, he would take the Traders on no matter how bad the odds were. Please be assured that he has our back in that regard.’

Ian Ridge was relieved but not surprised to hear the answer. He continued to talk to Jane for several minutes about his plans for Steve and his crew. He also requested that Jane kept these same plans private for the time being.  Ian later issued an invitation for Jane to meet him in Canberra one day, which Jane graciously accepted.

After several minutes, the call was finished and Jane then again checked the standing orders for the patrol circuit. She then asked that the state of the Seahawk be checked again for a possible flight at dawn, before handed over command for the evening to the watch lieutenant. After a quick meal and shower, she rolled into her bed and lay awake for several minutes before sleep.

‘So Steve, just what are you, your crew and the rest of humanity getting ourselves into?’ She thought about this question even as she fell asleep.

                                                            ***

Five hundred meters from HMAS Sydney, a cloaked Maveen probe, invisible to human observers, passively scanned the human warship and made a threat assessment.

‘Low level and in containment or patrol mode, to keep things out rather than keep things in…’ Probe four evaluated as it patiently observed the human ship.

The probe considered the state of the human interaction it had witnessed so far since they had arrived on this world. The initial attack of the large human surface fleet was confusing in the context of this ship, and another one nearby, now merely patrolling the landward side of the offshore islands.

‘So this protective blockade would support the viewpoint that the lead probe has in regards the humans. They are uniquely vulnerable to interaction with the galactic races, especially the vassal races, due to their weaker technology, lack of unity and social immaturity.’