by P F Walsh
“These are tasty, a bit salty, definitely a snack food. What are they made of?” The leader turned to an aid who explained they were made from darkplant, a plant that grows without sunlight inside their underground habitat and is the main staple of the colony. She said it is prepared in dozens of ways, but the cubes are sun dried, then salted slightly.
“I will prepare a bag of these for you to take back with you.’ She said. Doris smiled and said,
“Make sure you put together a bag for the rest of the crew too.” Clearly placing her dibs on that first bag.
Dr. Jess’m spoke up,
“I would like to have a good-sized sample of that plant to take to my lab when we return. The plant sounds unique, I love to study unique life cells.” The aid nodded in affirmation and left to get what they both wanted.
The Doctor then said to Eslmar,
“Let’s take a look at your sick colonists now.” The Leader nodded and asked another aid to take the Doctor to the clinic room.
Sean was a bit unsettled to allow the group to become separated but the Sisters picked up on his thoughts and told him silently,
“There is no malice here. They all speak truth with clean hands. We see nothing to fear.” They chimed.
“Thank you.” He replied mentally. They nodded ever so slightly as he looked at them.
“Leader, let’s talk about how I can be of assistance to your colony.” Sean said to the Leader. They began discussions as Sean thought,
“It might have been a good idea to bring Rooky down with us for the legal issues. Too late now.” Sean stopped the conversation and said to his translator,
“Allister, please record this discussion and let Rooky listen in as well.”
Sean told the Leader that the Discovery also had a ship’s Counselor who was expert on the Council laws and rules, Sean was sure he will be able to guide him through the colony’s issues when they get back. The discussions continued.
The Doctor had been examining the patients who were experiencing what the colonists had described as a ‘wasting disease’. All the patients looked thin and weak. No exterior evidence of injury or infection was observable, so the Doctor opened his kit and asked the patients if he could have their permission to take a blood sample back to his lab aboard ship. They all agreed and he collected samples from each one.
Later, they had all returned to the ship and signaled the Lotma Destroyer that all was proceeding amiably, and Lt. Hark’m -Sed had identified the pirate ship as the Lotma Corvette Noullk LC87, presumed lost in an explosion during the last days of the war. Now, unquestionably, a rogue ship with a pirate crew. The Domak dispatched a courier drone back to Lotma to inform their military command that their mission had become more challenging, and that they were now hunting a rogue Lotma warship.
The doctor, working in his lab analyzed the blood samples of the patients and determined that those three colonists were likely unable to fully absorb the darkplant nutrition, and all they needed was a vitamin supplement to return to good health. The Doctor had a large bottle of multi-vitamins that he could send down and get those colonists back on their feet within a week or so. Long term, they needed to acquire some vitamins and food supplements to their diet. Sean was hopeful that he could persuade the Council to begin some humanitarian level of contact to enable that resource to become available.
It was clear, the Colony had some items of value to trade and he looked forward to seeing it happen. The Discovery stayed in orbit for two days while the Colonists sent up a shipment of precious metal ingots and a large supply of the darkplant snacks to bring back in trust to trade. They were sent back with the Multi-vitamins and some spare food the Discovery had on board. Discovery was given a long list of needed items including the food supplements the Doctor recommended. Sean advised them that they still had to hunt down the pirates and would not be heading directly back to Hhearn right away.
Allister moved the Discovery out of orbit and through the asteroid field to join up with the Domak destroyer. Once there, Lt Hark’m-Sed transferred back to the Domak, and using the information they had acquired, both set a course the Pirates and the captured freighter were heading when they left the seizure scene. The plan was a series of short jumps and scan so as not to overshoot where they had gone. The Doctor planned to spend all his time in the lab analyzing samples from the large supply of darkplant which he immediately saw was a cross between a fungus and a green plant. “Most unusual.” He thought.
Both ships winked out of local space into ‘no-space.
Chapter Twenty-One
Book Two
Maejel was walking through Hhearn’s version of a Museum. All the exhibits were related to what a natural history museum would display. The exhibits were carefully displayed and were an excellent treatise on the history of Hhearn and those items which were the most meritorious in Hhearn’s history of development. She learned a great deal about their achievements, their culture, and different segments of the population. Any information on the Sisters of Mak’am was absent. As she moved through the halls, she especially loved the section of space related developments and could trace through the exhibits, how Hhearn achieved their space accomplishments. She could see that Earth, at the point in the Seeker’s discovery of Earth, was about 150 years behind, but really only in space, and was about to become quickly commensurate with the rest of the Worlds in one giant step.
What was missing was a Museum of Art. Art didn’t seem to be of particular interest, and yet, when offered examples, such as music, they blossomed into an insatiable full court press to catch up. There was a great deal for her to offer as cultural Attaché and she was a bit overwhelmed at how much that could be.
“I need to set up a museum exhibit from Earth ASAP. Paintings and. sculpture, in three modes, early, intermediate and modern. We could include furniture and dress, God there’s sooo much.” She thought, as she made mental notes on what to include and found herself mentally editing since there was so much and Earth Museums were feisty about what they would let out to tour.
“I think the best way to approach this is to touch base with all the major Earth Museums and find out what they are presently touring and see if those can be side tracked to Hhearn.” She said quietly to herself while walking and looking for the Hhearn Museum offices and digging out her slate preparing to tap into the Seeker’s database which included almost all of the Earth internet web sites. Just before she got to the Museum offices, she stopped, and with realization she thought,
“Museums are territorial about their collections and how it reflects on the curator. Not too likely to find vast interest in there. Need to find another way.”. She reversed her walk and headed for the front door. She drove her rented landcar back to her apartment and remembered she needed to write a letter to John Lewis, the Secretary of State, they agreed to stay in touch and get together as often as possible. Tomorrow, she would get that to Wally to include in the weekly drone courier to Earth. Tonight, she could relax and have a glass of wine with dinner. Then, decide what she would wear tomorrow when she had mid-day’s meal with the Senior Counselor’s Mate to discuss Ball preparations for next year, and Millie’s upcoming Music Festival about which, there was growing anticipation.
After that meeting, she was going up to the top of the Council building where an Earth company had taken a lease to open an Earth restaurant called ‘Top of the World’ and take some photos of the construction progress. She was meeting there with Nasht-Mer who was dying to see how it was coming along. The plans called for a grand restaurant similar to the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center. That is definitely one of the most beautiful and elegant restaurant/night clubs in New York City. For three quarters of a century, a stalwart survivor from a bygone era on Earth. Hhearn didn’t have anything like this. “Come to think of it, Earth didn’t have many now either. The days of black-tie elegance have waned.” She thought. Maejel was looking forward to being at the opening as was Nasht-Mer.
The rogue
Lotma Corvette Noullk escorted the stolen freighter through the thick asteroid field to the large asteroid near the center of the field. This asteroid called Minos 138 had been heavily mined of metals decades ago and was full of mining tunnels all sealed up with an airlock at the main entrance. The asteroid was ideal. Beyond the airlock, the tunnel opened up into a large hanger-like area where the mining ore buggies and machines had been kept on charge. All mining equipment now long gone; the area was perfect for storing the captured cargo crates of the freighters before they were cleaned for re-sale. Their first hijacked freighter had been carrying hundreds of huge canisters of compressed air for mining excavations. One of the Noullk’s crew, a former miner, knew of this abandoned asteroid mine and they made it their base camp after charging the interior with new air and activating a small generator for lights.
Now parked and tethered to the steel gantry that extended out for three hundred strides away from the asteroid, the freighter was being unloaded by the pirate crew.
“By Zom’s Balls, look what we have here!” One of the crewmen barked into his EVA suit commo.
“Looks like a full crate of Rhhymnet ‘Seep!’ He exclaimed.
The other pirates came over to look. Rhhymnet ‘Seep’ was an alcoholic drink made from the seeping sap of the Vergop tree from the Rhhymnet plains. This tree grew low to the ground but had a huge, thick trunk that exuded sap following every cold season. It had been collected for hundreds of solars as a sweetener until someone decided it could be distilled into a potent alcoholic drink. The Pirates worked together to load this crate directly into the asteroid tunnels. Once beyond the airlock, there was no hesitation to open the sealed crate and begin to hand out bottles to each and every man there. Especially since the ‘Captain,’ a mutiny master chief, was on board the Corvette likely sleeping with his own private liquor stash he never shared. The crew knew he had it since they could smell it on his breath. But, now, it was their turn to slip into the sublime grips of dissolution after the initial boisterous celebration of free drink, and from their perspective, deservedly so. This, of course, descended into savage fighting over insults and simmering settlements until all were knocked unconscious either by drink or a steel glove.
The Lotma destroyer Domak and the Discovery had made several short jumps with Allister’s sensors sniffing for recent local thrust trails without success. Sean was about to invite the Domak’s captain and his XO to the Discovery for one of Allister’s dinners. These, while still a product of the synthesizer, it had been tuned by Allister to remarkable effect in producing Earth based food. He was about to contact the Domak when the Sisters came to him on the bridge. They stood before him silent for a few minutes and then chimed,
“Captain, the metal is gone, but there is a celebration of anger and malice.”
“Where?” He asked.
“Beneath the rock.” they chimed and left the bridge so he couldn’t ask for more.
“Signal the Domak encrypted, ‘we need to pause here and look about, we believe we may have picked up a trace.’” He instructed his commo crewman. The ships stopped and began a thorough passive scan. After hours of scanning by both ships, Allister appeared on the bridge.
“Captain, I have scanned everything in this sector, there are no planets or moons, only asteroids, rocks, and empty space. I suspect the Domak is seeing the same thing. There is one anomaly, in my scanning of and asteroid group the scan indicated mostly rock but a glimpse of metal with a very high purity.”
“A ship?”. Sean asked.
“Possibly, it would be very exceptional to find metal in an asteroid cluster this pure. It was only a glimpse since the rocks are all moving.” Allister replied. “My database of this sector shows an asteroid in that cluster that was mined out decades ago and abandoned.”
“A base?” Sean said.
“Conceivable, Captain. I advise we approach slowly with low thruster bloom.”
Sean instructed the commo to signal the Domak encrypted,
“Possible ship detected in asteroid field at abandoned mining site. Let’s approach slowly with low thruster bloom.”
Domak acknowledged and began to move closer with Discovery. When they had halved the distance, Allister confirmed traces of recent thruster exhaust. Sean notified the Domak. As they neared the outer ring of tumbling rock, they could see brief glimpses of a much larger asteroid in the center providing enough gravity to bind the small rocks and dust to stay local.
The Domak signaled Discovery,
“Investigate with shuttles and leave our ships outside the field to catch any escape attempts?” Sean quickly agreed and slowly repositioned the Discovery on the other side of the field. He asked for volunteers since there was high likelihood of armed resistance. Doris and Halkt immediately stepped forward as did Welly the ship’s engineer.
“Welly?” Sean questioned. “You realize there will be shooting?”
“Yes, Captain, this will not be my first hostile boarding. Several annuals ago, well over a decade now, I was on board a Council warship that had to seize a Zakar smuggling ship. Nothing could be as bad as Zakarians when it comes to not wanting you on their ship. Besides, I have a ‘crowd pleaser’ that Doris cleaned up for me. That’s got a bit of a bite.”
“I’ll say it does.” Sean said. “Very well you’re in. When we board the freighter, you’ll have to secure the engine room and look for scuttling charges, these people have nothing to lose, they will be executed for piracy if taken alive.” he said.
Discovery was to board the freighter and Domak was to board the Corvette and seize her before she could fight back, though there was little she could do within the asteroid belt except try to escape or self-destruct. Once the ships were secured, the pirates, if they were in the base, had nowhere to go. Sean continued,
“Don’t waste your life trying to take prisoners. If they give up, fine. If there is resistance, shoot to kill, they will.” He turned to Doris,
“Doris, remember, frangible rounds when we board the ship, not so much in a base if we get into it.” he said
“Got it, already loaded with both.” She replied as she dragged a box out of a nearby cupboard and began to hand out armor vests to each of the volunteers including herself.
“Maja-Ben gave these to me just before we left Hhearn.” She said smiling. “These are thin enough to wear in our EVA suits. Won’t stop puncture of the suit but will absorb an energy bolt or a bullet.”
Everyone donned the vests and then climbed into their EVA suits strapping on side suit belts for weapons to free both hands.
Domak sent over four armed crewmen to ride in on Discovery’s shuttle. “Captain, there is a path through the asteroid field but it appears there are drones along it for protection or detection of approach. I recommend you work your way through the rock and avoid that path.”
Said Allister.
“Thank you, Allister, good suggestion, send a message to Domak about that.” he said as they began to head to the shuttle after checking their weapons. As they boarded the shuttle Sean said,
“Allister you have command, raise all combat systems to readiness.”
“Yes Captain, all systems ready, I have command.” Allister acknowledged
Both Discovery and Domak launched their shuttles together on opposite sides of the ring of rock and began working their way through with occasional collisions with small stones and dust not large enough to damage anything but the paint. As they got closer to the main asteroid, they could see it was large enough to have a sizable mining tunnel system. They slowly glided around the asteroid to where they could see the Steel gantry with the Corvette and the Freighter tethered. The Freighter had been left with its cargo door wide open. The Discovery shuttle slipped into the cargo hold and settled onto the cargo deck, light as a feather, so as not to bump the freighter and alert anyone on board.
Sean and the boarding crew disembarked from the shuttle and ran to secure other doors. Doris sprayed the door portholes with sticky foam to obsc
ure anyone looking into the cargo hold as Welly quietly closed the cargo hatch manually. Once that was done, he opened the pressurization valve and pressurized the hold. When the hold was getting close to being fully pressurized, the team slipped off their EVA suits, and readied their weapons. Welly and the four Domak crewmen headed for the pressure door to the engine room and went through quietly. Sean, Doris and Halkt moved through the forward pressure door toward the bridge checking and clearing each side room as they went.
At the bridge door, a heavier, entry resistant construction, they looked through the peephole and could see a pirate sitting in the Captain’s chair drinking out of a bottle with a gun of some type laying at hand. They tried the door handle; it was locked from the inside. They looked at each other with a quizzical look “What do we do now?” They had no explosives to blow the door, the pirate was sure to look through the peep before opening.
Doris drew Sean and Halkt in a side room a few feet away and whispered,
Stay here until you know the door is open and then come on. I got this.” She said and took off her vest, shirt and pants. As she thought,
“This always works.”
Clad now only in her bra, tomboy panties with a fringe, and a translator, she stuck her stun pistol in the panties band in back. And proceeded to walk out into the hall as Sean and Halkt stood incredulous and unable to move they were so surprised. She walked up to the door and pounded on it stepping back so the pirate could get a full look at who was outside. After a minute, the pirate opened the door and said,
“Who the hell are you?”
“The boss brought in some girls to help celebrate, I’m supposed to keep you happy, but if you’re not interested, the other guys were looking for a group thing. Might be more fun.” As she started to back away.
