The Star Cross (5 page)

“So why would
they sell us something that cuts into their profits? And what’s to stop them
from destroying my fleet when we fly into their den and selling me and my crew
as slaves? Do you really think the Profiteers will allow us to walk away, once
we’ve paid the ransom for our people? Plus, how do we know we can trust
anything those prisoners told you? I need to see a map of Kubitz, if that’s
even possible. Otherwise how are we going to find our way safely around that
foreign planet that we didn’t even know existed two weeks ago?” asked Kurt,
seeing a number of serious holes in the general’s and fleet admiral’s plan.
What they were asking sounded nearly impossible.

“With this,”
General Braid said. He opened another door, and the three men stepped inside.
Two more heavily armed Marines stood next to the wall, keeping a close watch on
the third individual in the room.

Kurt came to a
stop, as he stared open mouthed at his first alien. He was humanlike in that he
had two feet, coarse white hair on his head, but with larger eyes, and his skin
was a light blue color. He sat tall in the chair, which make Kurt think he’d be
taller than most humans when standing

“This is
Grantz,” General Braid said, gesturing toward the alien.

The alien
looked toward the three men and placed both his hands on the table he sat
behind. On the table were two bars of gold. He reached out and rubbed his hands
over the gold and smiled. “So you want to know about Kubitz?” he asked in a
guttural-sounding voice.

“That’s our agreement,”
responded General Braid. “Two gold bars now and two more when the mission is
complete.”

Grantz looked
down at the gold on the table, his hands still touching it. Kurt could almost
see the greed in the Profiteer’s eyes at the thought of what that much gold
could buy.

“Four when the
mission is complete, and I promise not to betray you to my people. I will act as
a member of your ship’s company, until we agree that I have met my contract.”

“Contract?”
asked Kurt, looking even more confused. Had they actually bribed one of the
aliens to betray his own people?

“Yes,”
muttered Fleet Admiral Tomalson unhappily. “There will be a signed contract by
all parties. We will have a copy, and Grantz will have a copy. From what I
understand, if he violates the contract, and we file a complaint on Kubitz with
a Controller, he will be banned from doing any Profiteering for the rest of his
life.”

“It is our
way,” Grantz explained.

Kurt nodded;
he wondered how he would explain this latest addition to his human crew. He
felt a headache coming on, as he realized that his life had suddenly become
even more complicated.

High Profiteer
Creed gazed in aggravation at the main viewscreen, which showed a massive
cylinder-shaped ship with a flaring bow and a flared rear area that housed the
warship’s powerful engines. The ship belonged to the Dacroni, a mercenary clan
from the heavy-gravity world of Dacron Four. The ship was 1,100 hundred meters
in length and 220 meters in diameter, except for the two flared sections that
added another 100 meters in width at the fore and aft of the ship. It was
covered with energy projectors and hatches, which hid hypermissile tubes. The
imposing vessel was a battleship—one of the most powerful ships in the Gothan
Empire.

“Clan Leader
Jarls will be aboard shortly,” Second Profiteer Lantz reported with a scowl on
his face. “To hire this Dacroni clan will cost a fortune!”

Creed knew Lantz
didn’t like doing business with mercenaries; it was always very expensive.
Creed agreed on both accounts.

“Fortunately
we have the credits, due to what we took from the human world,” responded Creed,
dismissing Lantz’s comment. “We lost a number of valuable ships and control of
Earth. We must rectify that situation immediately. We’ll hire this Dacroni clan
to clear the space in the humans’ system and to remain there on guard duty for
ninety days. During that time, we will plunder enough riches off the planet to
enrich every member of our crews. We also have some debts on Kubitz that need
to be paid off, before we’re branded as unwanted.”

“The humans we
brought back to sell should satisfy those debts,” Lantz grunted out.

The credits
they had borrowed on Kubitz had updated several of their warships, including
the
Ascendant Destruction
, and the charges had been outrageous. However,
the shipyards above Kubitz were the best in the empire.

“Yes,” High
Profiteer Creed responded with a slight nod of his head. “The humans should
bring a good price, particularly the females. The pleasure houses will buy many
of them. But we also need to replace the warships and crews we lost, and that’ll
be a heavy cost.” Creed knew it would take a major portion of the gold,
platinum, and jewels they had taken from Earth to bring his fleet up to full strength
and hire the mercenaries.

“Three
battlecruisers and six escorts,” groaned Lantz.

Yes, Creed was
also concerned about the costs, not just to replace the ships. The families of
the lost crews would have to be paid their share of the bounty brought back, plus
sign-on bonuses were necessary for the replacement crews to override their fear
of death. In all it would be very expensive but necessary.

“A drop in the
bucket if we can spend ninety days gleaning all the treasures on Earth.” Creed
spoke with a light now in his large eyes, strongly suspecting they had only
touched a smidgen of the gold and other treasures available on that planet. “We
can pay for a new fleet, larger and far more powerful than our current one, and
still have a huge reserve of credits for future expenditures. We’ll never have
to worry about the Kubitz Controllers again.”

“Our cargo
ships and slave detainee ships are in orbit, waiting further orders,” Third
Profiteer Bixt reported from his sensor console.

The ships had
arrived a few days ago, before Creed and his fleet’s return to the planet. On
the ship’s main sensor screen, hundreds of icons were visible, representing the
massive amount of vessels in orbit around the planet Kubitz. Some were other
raiders, like the
Ascendant Destruction
, while some were passenger ships
and cargo vessels.

“We need to
repair our battle damage and then return to the human system,” Creed announced.
The holds of several of his ships were packed with gold, and he was anxious to
return for more. That precious yellow metal meant financial freedom for his
fleet.

“Clan Leader
Jarls has come aboard,” reported Third Profiteer Lukon from Communications.

“Excellent,”
Creed said, pleased that the Dacroni mercenary leader had accepted Creed’s
invitation to meet. “Have him escorted to the main briefing room on the command
deck.”

“He’ll be expensive,”
reiterated Lantz, shaking his head. “Hiring these mercenaries will cut into the
profits from this trip.”

“But they’re
the best,” Creed answered. Fortunately they had taken more than one thousand
gold bars from several underground vaults on the human planet. He took a deep
fortifying breath, as he strolled purposely from the Command Center to meet Clan Leader Jarls.

-

A few moments
later Jarls was escorted into the briefing room. His humanoid form—with his bulky
legs, torso, and arms—were the result of living on a heavy-gravity world, and
his powerful muscles were evident in his every step. His face was similar to a
human’s but rounder and chunkier. Even his neck seemed to be shorter and
thicker, with his head almost resting on his torso.

“Greetings,
Clan Leader Jarls.” High Profiteer Creed gestured for the Dacronian to have a
seat.

Jarls’s eyes
lit up seeing the four bars of gold stacked prominently on the conference table
directly in front of him. Creed probably thought the presence of the yellow
gold bars would serve as a distraction during their meeting, to get every advantage
possible.

“Greetings,
High Profiteer Creed,” Jarls replied, his eyes never leaving the gold. “I have
heard that you need assistance in dealing with a rebellious alien race you’ve
discovered.”

“Yes,” replied
Creed.

The Dacronians
had a reputation for garnering these contracts, even though their fees were exorbitant.
Jarls knew of Creed’s need for his powerful Draconian ships. Rumors of what had
happened to Creed’s fleet were already flying around Marsten and Kubitz.

“We’ve discovered
a rich world to plunder in one of the backwater regions of unexplored space,” began
Creed, keeping his voice calm. “We thought we had eliminated their primitive
space fleet, but another fleet we knew nothing about jumped in. My fleet was
unprepared for such an unexpected attack, and we lost a number of ships before
we could raise our shields.”

“I don’t believe
they’re quite as primitive as you suggest, if they could take out some of your
ships,” Jarls replied with a crafty look in his eyes. “I heard what happened to
your fleet in the human system.”

He had done
his research prior to coming over to the
Ascendant Destruction
. His people
had bribed several crewmembers of the Marsten ships in order to get them to reveal
what had happened. The humans did to High Profiteer Creed exactly what Jarls would
have done to them. A mercenary fleet would never have let their guard down,
like Creed had.

Creed remained
silent.

“Particle
weapons and KEW batteries,” Jarls said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Hyperdrives
and energy shields. I don’t know if I would call them primitive.”

“But KEW weapons,” protested Creed, shaking his head. “No one uses them anymore!”

“Perhaps not,”
replied Jarls, reaching out and touching one of the tantalizing gold bars. He
ran his fingers across the metal thinking about what he could buy with several
of these. “But a ship without an energy shield can easily be destroyed by the
type of KEW batteries the humans used. They’re a very effective weapon in the
right situation, as I’m sure you recently learned. They’re also extremely
inexpensive to operate.”

Jarls picked
up one of the gold bars and knew from its weight that it was real and worth
about 1.2 million credits. Credits were the universal currency used throughout
the known galaxy. A fully armed battlecruiser cost around ten to twelve million
credits. A battleship, like the ones he possessed, would cost around fifteen to
twenty million.

“I would like
to hire your battleships to remove the threat of the human warships and to
ensure that the human system stays under my control for at least ninety days,”
Creed said.

“You wish us to
remove a fleet that will undoubtedly be expecting an attack,” Jarls began, as
he added up the cost in his head. “After the human fleet has been destroyed or
driven off, we then need to hold the system for an additional ninety days,
while you strip the human planet of its wealth.”

“Yes,” Creed
said in a low voice.

“One hundred
million credits up front and 10 percent of what you remove from the planet in
those ninety days,” Jarls said, as he picked up a second gold bar with his
other hand.

“One hundred
million credits and 10 percent!” roared Creed, standing up in anger. “That’s
ridiculous. I could buy my own battleships for that price!”

“Not with the
well-trained crews I have,” Jarls answered, nonplussed by Creed’s reaction. “In
ninety days, you can strip this human world of several billion credits, if this
gold is an example of what’s available on that planet. I can give you ninety
days of guaranteed safety to remove whatever you want from the planet, with the
option to renew for another ninety days for an additional 20 percent.”

Creed sat back
down and thought over Jarls’s proposal. “You guarantee my ships’ safety?”

“Yes,” Jarls
replied. “Your ships will not be attacked while my fleet is in the system.”

“I will agree
to it with one modification. I want one of your battleships to accompany any
cargo ships or detainee ships I send back to Marsten or Kubitz. I will provide
my own warships as well, to help protect these convoys, but one of your battleships
must go along to ensure their safety.”

Jarls gazed at
Creed thoughtfully. It sounded as if this human world might be very rich in
gold and perhaps other valuables. His 10 percent could be a very sizable
payoff. “I agree,” he said after a moment. “I will have you a signed contract,
notarized by one of the Kubitz Controllers, within twenty-two hours.”

“How soon
before you can get to Earth?”

“I will be
taking twenty battleships,” Jarls answered. “I have twelve here and will need
to send for eight more. I should be able to leave within five days.”

“Very well,” replied
Creed.

The Kubitz
government kept Controllers on each world of the Gothan Empire to maintain
records of all contracts signed. Any violation of a contract could easily
result in a clan’s lifetime banishment from participating in raiding
activities. Even an entire planet could suffer penalties. Normally a planet
would be given the choice of paying a hefty fine or refraining from raids for a
specific time period of a few days to several years. It was one reason why
contracts were almost never violated. The Dacronians would honor their contract
to ensure that their stellar reputation remained intact.

“Once you receive
the signed contract, I will expect the one hundred million credits to be
deposited in my account on Kubitz within twenty-two hours.”

“It will be
done,” replied Creed, standing up. “As a symbol of my appreciation, these gold
bars are a gift for your personal account.”

For the first
time, Jarls allowed himself to smile. This might be a very profitable venture,
indeed, with High Profiteer Creed making this gesture. “Prepare your ships,” Jarls
said, rising and picking up the four gold bars. “With my protection, you’re
about to become very rich.”

Creed didn’t
reply, as Clan Leader Jarls left the room, carrying the gold.

-

Since the bars
to Jarls were a personal gift, there would never be any record of this
transaction. It also ensured that the clan leader would do everything in his
power to keep Creed’s ships safe. Now Creed needed to return to the Command Center and make the necessary final arrangements to get his ships repaired and to
gather the fleet he planned to retake Earth with.

When he was done,
there would be no gold, platinum, jewels, or major works of art left on the human
planet. Then, for years to come, humans could be taken and sold in the Kubitz
slave markets. There were enough human and humanoid races to make the Earth humans
a very desirable commodity, particularly in the sex trade. He suspected that
human females would be in high demand on Kubitz and the other worlds of the
Gothan Empire.

-

For two weeks
the evacuation had continued at a steady pace. On the surface of Earth, massive
rescue efforts were underway in the devastated cities hit by the nukes.
Hospitals were full of hundreds of thousands of people suffering from radiation
sickness, with more coming in every day. The early death toll from the
Profiteer bombardment had already climbed to over forty-two million worldwide.
Doctors and specialists were predicting another two to six million would die in
the next year from radiation poisoning and other immediate side effects. In the
long term, a drastic increase in cancer deaths were expected over the next few
decades.

-

“Rescue
efforts are continuing in the Chicago and the Washington, DC, areas,” President
Mayfield informed the other Cabinet members. “In DC we’re retrieving some of
the valuable historical documents stored there. The radiation levels are still
high, and our people can only work in some of the hotter areas for a few
hours.”

“I’ve read the
reports, describing the near panic of people who live in close proximity to the
two stricken cities and how martial law has been declared in the surrounding
areas to ensure public safety. What are we doing to limit the spread of the
radiation?” asked Secretary of the Treasury Dwight Michaels.

“We’re using cargo
planes filled with a special chemical,” General Braid said. “We’re also
spraying another agent to reduce the radiation in areas with high rad counts. We’re
enforcing a mandatory evacuation of everyone living within twenty miles of Chicago and Washington, some of the most heavily populated areas in the country.”

“How many
people are we talking about?” asked Michaels.