The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (10 page)

Crista added, “We have to get 45 humans.”

Lorano knew exactly how many crewmembers were required and briefly considered telling Crista her clarification wasn’t necessary. However, she quite frankly scared him and he refrained from making a derogatory comment.

Carank filled the silence by asking, “How do you plan to do that?”

Victor answered, “I honestly don’t know. I have an idea though.”

Lorano realized at least a part of Victor’s plan and said, “You plan to use these humans to somehow recruit the others.”

Victor said, “Yes. I want to offer the humans shore leave in exchange for their assistance. It will be far more believable if I have 20 people willing to board a ship. That should convince the others it is safe.”

Lorano said, “Excellent strategy. The new humans probably won’t realize what is happening until after you leave the atmosphere.”

Victor said, “Well, it wasn’t our original idea, but since they are here why not use them. I mean, they are here aboard the
Sunflower
aren’t they?”

Lorano said, “Yes. The humans are here. Carank and I are using the gravity missile technology I invented to try to find Old Solaria. The
Sunflower
is here assisting us. Oddly enough though, it has no crew. The only people aboard are the bridge officers and the humans. It is almost as if…” Lorano let his voice trail off. He wanted to see if anyone else could figure out what he was thinking.

Crista finished, “The humans will be assigned to the
Sunflower
when we return with them.” She realized that she was probably the butt of one of Lorano’s jokes and scowled.

Victor noted her change in mood and quickly restarted the conversation. He said, “I wonder if Captain Solear knows. Maybe we should ask him?”

Lorano: “Solear isn’t aboard. Clowy is the acting captain until he returns.” Lorano considered telling them about the new solar system they may have found, but decided against it. They really didn’t need the information.

Victor: “Since you are here, can I ask for two favors?”

Lorano: “Let me guess. You want to know whether the secondary power generator we installed can generate enough oxygen to keep 65 humans alive.”

Victor: “Excellent guess.”

Lorano and Carank reviewed the schematics and concluded that the current system was incapable of supporting that many people. Lorano drew a new schematic on the communication pad and forwarded it to Victor.

Lorano: “You can buy compressed oxygen in tanks on Earth. Purchase 11 full tanks and connect them according to the schematic I just sent you. Then, allow a small, metered release and you should be able to keep them breathing long enough to get back to Conron.”

Carank “In addition, you will need to obtain a carbon dioxide scrubbing system. They are readily available on Earth.”

Victor: “Now, the second favor. Can I just drop the humans at the space station here in Waylon? That way, I will only need to keep the humans in the hold about 15 hours instead of 11 days.”

Lorano laughed and said, “Yes. You can drop the humans on Waylon. You can send a signal like before and we can come and get them.”

Carank: “Wait, this is silly. Let’s just take the
Sunflower
to Earth to retrieve the humans.”

Victor: “That is certainly a better idea. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about keeping the humans alive because the
Sunflower
is designed to hold people. It would be much easier. However, we would need to reproduce the electronics package that makes the
Vista
look like a blimp.”

Carank: “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

Lorano: “The only problem is where do we hide the
Vista
?”

Victor: I will program the
Vista
to follow the
Sunflower
to Earth and park at the exit to the hyperspace lane.”

Carank: “That isn’t the only problem though. Can you hack the
Sunflower’s
transponder and change the hyperspace log? We can’t have the
Sunflower
broadcasting the secret route.”

Lorano: “No, I can’t. We will have to fool the
Sunflower’s
transponder like we did the
Vista’s
. It is only one jump to Earth. We will just do it manually.”

Carank: “Victor, how long do you intend to stay on Earth?”

Victor: “Three weeks should be enough.”

Lorano: “That should work nicely. We should be able to go to Earth, get the new crew, and return to Waylon before Solear returns from his scouting mission.”

Lorano and Carank returned to the
Sunflower’s
bridge. Lorano activated the force field protecting the bridge and lowered every other force field. The humans could now wander freely throughout the ship.

Lorano noted that Clowy wasn’t on the bridge at the moment. He opened a ship-wide communication channel and said, “Humans, as you may be aware, the
Sunflower
is missing its crew. We have just been given orders to obtain a new crew from a nearby system you may be familiar with. The jump should only last about 11 hours.”

Carank walked over to Lorano, activated a privacy noise emitter and said, “There is one remaining issue. We are going to have to find a way to fool Clowy to actually give the order to go get the crew. Further, we cannot let her figure out that there is a secret route to Earth because she will be bound by her oath to the Alliance Navy to report it.”

Lorano thought for a moment and answered, “Yes, you are correct. However, tricking Clowy will be no easy task.”

Chapter 5

Jack was thrilled that they were just about to exit hyperspace in Influenla. The journey had only lasted 10 days of shipboard time, but it seemed like an eternity. If time flies when you are having fun, it must waddle when you are not.

Jack was accustomed to spending months at a time in the freighter monitoring human communications; so the long days with little to do really hadn’t bothered him. In many ways he preferred the quiet solitude with the human television feeds as his only input.

Having to play nicely with Ella, however, had been irritating. He had considered on more than one occasion putting her (or possibly himself) in one of the emergency stasis chambers and setting the timer for today. He had so far resisted that urge. What he had done, however, was to entertain Ella to the best of his ability.

Ella, on the other hand, had rarely been by herself. As a result, she had difficulty being alone with her thoughts for any great length of time. She enjoyed the camaraderie of the Navy personnel and the daily routine aboard a large fleet vessel.

Her home life on Solaria was also quite different than Jack’s. While Jack was usually alone or with his immediately family, Ella was ensconced in activity. She would regularly accompany her father on his various trips to paint or sculpt. When actually at home, her father was usually hosting other artists or clients. There was always something for her to do.

Jack quickly found that they had little in common other than an interest in humans and his white skin. The first time he caught her staring at him he thought she might be romantically interested in him. However, he was not attracted to her. Days later into the journey he realized that she was simply fascinated by the different skin color and wasn’t attracted to him either. Good, he thought, one less thing to worry about.

However, probably the worst part of trip had been Ella’s insistence that each meal contain a small portion of fresh food. Had Jack known of this requirement, he could have stocked the galley with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Or, as Ella had told him on multiple occasions, had Jack bothered to ask a few basic questions before hastily loading her aboard, he would have learned the information with plenty of time to take action.

Either way, the only fresh food was the Advranki sea moss in the main hold. Each meal Ella carved out a chunk, carried it to the galley, and made a dish out of it. She watched Jack closely to ensure that each meal he ate a proper portion. Jack hadn’t been particularly fond of sea moss before, but after eating it for 30 consecutive meals he had grown to absolutely despise the stuff. If it weren’t so valuable, he probably would have chucked the load into space.

Fortunately, Jack had several hundred hours of bootleg human television shows and movies. They spent the majority of their time watching shows from a variety of genres. Her favorite show seemed to be about a man who wielded a colored stick and was encased in black armor. Jack silently thanked humanity for keeping him sane on this arduous journey.

Ella announced, “We have exited hyperspace and are in the Influenla system. I am running both a passive and an active scan now.”

Jack accepted the news without comment because he was rubbing blue paint on his face. When he completed the job a few moments later he said, “What does the passive scan show?” Even though he had asked her the question, he sat down beside her in the control room and looked at the preliminary images that were just now returning.

Ella said in a panicky voice, “There is a Hiriculan Naval vessel just off our port bow. The readings are really strange. The vessel is about the size of a destroyer, but looks more like a battleship.”

Jack sighed and replied, “Maybe they designed a new class of ship.”

…We are being hailed. Displaying it on main monitor and translating to Alliance basic…

“Unknown freighter, this is the frigate
Bloodlust
. Please state your name, ship’s name, and the reason for your visit. Also, bring your ship to a full stop and prepare for possible boarding.”

Jack replied, “Hello, I am Jack Dogbarks, captain of the mini-freighter
Jackal
, and this is Ella Songbird, my first officer. We have a contract to deliver cargo from Coufla to Solaria. We are going to land on the space station in this system and exchange cargo with another ship coming from Coufla.”

Jack forwarded his cargo manifest and his shipping contract from the Hiriculan embassy. Jack was a little surprised that the voice from the frigate sounded uninterested and almost bored. Jack doubted that there were very many ships that came to Influenla after the last incident with an Alliance warship. This encounter should be the highlight of the Hiriculan’s day.

The Hiriculan responded, “Mini-freighter, you are cleared for entry into the Influenla system and approved for docking at the space station. Please maintain a speed of .03 light throughout the system. You will be given final docking instructions when you get closer to the station. Frigate
Bloodlust
ending transmission.”

Jack said, “Maybe we should turn off the scan now. We wouldn’t want to upset them.” Jack really meant that Ambassador Bline had cleared him to search the space station, but he hadn’t given him clearance to search the system.

Ella replied, “No. They didn’t specifically tell us to stop. Plus, a detailed scan of the system could provide valuable information – maybe as much as the station itself.”

Jack said, “You are probably right. Leave it on until we reach the station.” Jack wasn’t as confident as he sounded about this particular decision.

The Influenla system consisted of a normal sized star surrounded by 7 planets. Five of the planets were very close to the sun and there were two gas giants that were much farther away.

None of the planets were remotely capable of sustaining life, but they were rich in minerals and raw materials. There was an asteroid in the system that was almost big enough to be considered a 9
^th
planet, but it didn’t rotate the system’s sun. It was stationary; located just inside the hyperspace gravity limit.

The system had only one other known hyperspace lane. It was located on the exact opposite side of the system and eventually led to Coufla. If one imagined a circle the Opron hyperspace lane was at 270 degrees (southwest corner) of the system and the Coufla hyperspace lane was at 90 degrees (northeast corner).

Unlike most other systems, the Opron – Influenla hyperspace lane deposited travelers very close to the edge of the system and the start of the gravity field. Both the station and the wayward asteroid were located very near the Opron exit. At their current speed of .03 light, they would pass into the system’s gravity in 16 minutes, pass the asteroid in 19, and arrive at the station in 22 minutes.

In astronomical distances, this meant that the station was almost on top of the exit of the hyperspace lane. Jack surmised that this is what worried the Alliance. The Hiriculans claimed the station was intentionally located here to support freighter traffic through the system. However, the Alliance contended that it was in a perfect location for the Hiriculans to launch a surprise attack.

Ella looked at Jack and said, “Maybe we should fake engine failure. Our scan will not be close to completed by the time we reach the station.”

Jack replied, “No. We don’t want to look suspicious. We will just gather what little information we can get. Maybe they won’t block our feed once we reach the station.”

Jack said it as hopefully as possible, but he really didn’t believe it. It is standard procedure to block all scans from docked ships because the signal noise it creates could interfere with the station’s traffic control system.

Ella said, “We will be able to get a passive scan before we dock. I doubt much will have changed in the last 6 hours.”

Moving at a steady rate of 0.1 light, it would take 58 hours to traverse the system. Therefore, the light from the freighter’s scanner would take 5.8 hours to cross the system and another 5.8 to return. Because they will arrive at the station in under 30 minutes, they will only be able to actively scan a tiny portion of the system before they dock.

Jack suddenly thought of last conversation with Ambassador Bline. The ambassador said that they will show him exactly what they want him to see. Jack said, “Ella, focus the active scanner first on the frigate and then on the space station. The Alliance will be more interested to see the new class of Hiriculan ship than the system. Besides, we won’t see enough of the system to make a difference.