Outcast

by Guerin Zand

  Since all planets had different standard atmospheres, with different pressure and chemical makeup, there was still the need to use an airlock mechanism on the receiving ships end before entering. If for some reason a docking field could not be established, the docking hatch could be accessed by suiting up and performing an EVA. In cases where the atmospheric requirements of the two species were incompatible, an EVA suit would be required. All the needed information was initially transmitted when a docking request was made.

  I informed Steve we would be having visitors and that he should get a security team together to meet us in the transport room. That is where we had decided to place the airlocks on the Zand class cruisers since this room spanned the entire width of the ship and was easily secured. We had placed an airlock on both exterior walls of that room. I explained to Steve the agreement I made with Trinix controllers and that he should not let the inspectors deviate from that agreement. First, we docked the Ryvius and Voyager together. I gave the inspectors permission to dock on the opposite side of the Ryvius. We had practiced docking the two ships several times over our training cruise.

  When the inspectors from Trinix exited the airlock, they were greeted by Steve, me, and an eight-man armed security team. This seemed to upset them a little bit. That was what I wanted. I had sent them identification data for all the crew and passengers on the two ships before they docked.

  “Captain Zand?” I nodded to indicate my acknowledgment of that fact. “Very well. I’m Benes, and this is Kancera, my partner. Let me assure you that we are both unarmed so there is no reason for such security measures.” He looked over at the security team as they simply stared straight ahead. His partner was a female and she looked even more concerned.

  “Welcome aboard the Ryvius, Benes, Kancera. Let me introduce you both to the captain of the Voyager, Captain Steve Holmes.” Steve nodded and both inspectors did likewise. “The security teams are simply a standard precaution. As you should have both been told, our systems and technology are restricted to crew members only. The security teams will be escorting you to make sure that you adhere to the rules we have agreed to.”

  “If you insist.”

  “I do.”

  “Then if Captain Holmes will escort Kancera to the Voyager we would like to get started. If you would assemble all crew and passengers for inspection we…”

  “That will not be possible. Again, for security purposes, several stations onboard our ships require at least one member of the crew to be present at all times. We can make all of the passengers available, but not all at the same time. We will rotate crew members in for inspection when they have been properly relieved of their duties.”

  “That will be acceptable.”

  Steve and his security team escorted Kancera to Voyager as Benes started to confirm my ID, and my security team’s IDs against our manifest. We all had ASTN ID chips implanted before we left the Earth ship. The Collective was a valid originator of such IDs, so there were no issues. We were all scanned for any biological hazards as well. Next, all the passengers were checked and then we started to rotate in the crew as they became available. Benes seemed to be annoyed by all the security measures, but I wanted him to be. I wanted the word to get out that we were paranoid and took the security of our ships, and personnel, very serious.

  After confirming that all of us were who the manifest said we were, and that none of us had cooties, Benes was escorted by the security team for a short inspection of the ship and cargo bay. All the passengers, and most of the crew, went up to the lounge to relax while their quarters were made available for inspection if desired. I had all the doors to the crew and passenger quarters open, as well as doors to any other unrestricted areas. All restricted areas had the word restricted displayed on their control panels in native Trinix script. Hopefully, this would reduce the number of times the security teams would have to answer his questions as to whether an area was restricted.

  In all, Benes and Kancera spent almost five hours performing their inspection. When they were done we met back in the transport room on the Ryvius.

  “I hope you found everything in order?” I inquired.

  “Yes, but, well, all of your IDs and the manifest were certified by the Collective. We have no other method to verify the accuracy of any of this.”

  “Are you saying you don’t trust the Collective to be honest? If so, we do have a couple of members of the Collective available for you to question.”

  “No, no. It is just highly irregular. You’ll have to excuse me if I am at least a little suspicious. With all of your security precautions, it might seem that you have something to hide. Also, since it is the first time we have had visitors from the Terran system…”

  “This is not the first time you have had visitors from the Terran system. I have been here many times before, personally.”

  “We have no records of your previous visits, Captain Zand.”

  “That’s because I was traveling under the name Roberts. You have a record of a Captain Roberts, do you not?”

  “Of course, we know of Captain Roberts, but that is not who your ID claims you to be. Why is that? It seems, if that is the case, I have a valid reason not to accept these IDs and documents as valid.”

  “The ID for Captain Roberts was an ID I obtained from a less than trustworthy source here in the ASTN. Not an ID issued by the Collective. If you would check with my friend Froshjen, whom I know has contacted you about our arrival, he can confirm what I am telling you.”

  It took a few minutes for Benes to get confirmation as to my identity from Trinix. When he did receive confirmation he looked at me with a bit of surprise.

  “Is there something wrong, Benes?”

  “No, Captain Zand. I just, well, from some of the stories I had expected you to be a bit bigger.”

  Steve and I laughed at that one. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Benes.”

  “As soon as we get back to our ship we will contact Trinix port control to notify them you are cleared to land. Since you’ve been here before I guess I don’t have to go over all the fee schedules and security rules. The port controller will send you a copy for you to review and they’ll answer any questions you might have. There haven’t been any major changes since your last visit. Please have your crew and passengers familiarize themselves with rules.”

  “Thank you, Benes, Kancera. If you are interested in samples of any of our cargo, please let us know once we’re settled in. We plan on opening an office on Trinix in the near future. We are offering free samples to any interested parties as a way to draw interest in Terran goods.”

  “Thank you. Perhaps we’ll see you again soon.”

  As the two left through the airlock, I looked at Steve and raised an eyebrow.

  “Bureaucrats. They’re the same everywhere, Steve.” I looked back at the security teams. “Since this is your first time for you guys in the ASTN, let me explain something. When an inspector comes onboard, they usually expect not to leave empty-handed. Next time slip them a few bottles of whiskey or something, ok?”

  “Yes, Captain. Sorry, we didn’t know. We’ll pass it along.”

  “Good. Make sure to pass it on to all the teams, especially the Trinix team.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Let’s get these ships undocked and prepared to land, Steve. We’ll take them in on gravity drives only. No fancy flying, ok?”

  “You mean we can’t buzz the tower?”

  “Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.” We both laughed while the security teams seemed confused. The kids these days. No appreciation of the classics.

  Chapter 31

  Trinix

  We landed our ships on Trinix, in the port city Anthera, on January 17th, 2270. I guess maybe we should have made a big event out of it, but that wasn’t why we were there. Later on, I’d make it a point to invite some of the local officials onboard for a genuine Terran meal, or something like that. Most of the crew and passengers viewed the landing f
rom the lounge. Trinix was a beautiful world, very much like Earth. For most of the two ships personnel, this would be the first inhabited planet any of them had ever visited, and they were all eager to get off the ship and explore. I had to put a damper on their enthusiasm and reminded them that security measures would be followed. First, Steve and I would leave the ships to meet Froshjen and then he would come aboard the Ryvius. There were a lot of arrangements to be made before anyone ventured off the ships.

  Senri had insisted on accompanying me to greet Froshjen. I really had very little control over her and I knew arguing with her was a waste of breath. When we exited the ship, I was surprised to find the former first mate of the Vengeance, Sestan, waiting with Froshjen. I walked over to greet them both.

  “Froshjen, it’s good to see you again. Thank you for all of your help.”

  Before Froshjen could reply, Senri ran over to Sestan and gave him a big hug and a kiss. I gave them both a strange look.

  “Seriously, Sestan?”

  “What can I say, Captain.” Sestan simply shrugged. “Didn’t you always used to say, ‘Any port in a storm’?”

  “Yea, but not one with sharp, jagged rocks, and crawling with giant sea monsters.”

  “Humph!” Senri said as she raised her nose in my direction. “Just because you’re not man enough to handle it, Captain, doesn’t mean others can’t appreciate my talents.”

  “Whatever, Senri. If I had known, I would have given Sestan a bigger share for taking one for the team.” I walked over and shook Sestan’s hand. “Anyways, it’s good to see you again, Sestan. I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

  Steve walked over to join us.

  “Steve, let me introduce you to the former first mate of the Vengeance, Sestan. Sestan, this is the captain of the Voyager, Steve Holmes.” The two shook hands. “And you remember Froshjen from our little trip to the Black Hills?”

  “Yes. It’s good to see you again, Froshjen.”

  “Why don’t you two join us aboard the Ryvius. We have a lot to discuss. We also have a well-stocked liquor cabinet if you’d like some refreshment.”

  “Have I ever said no to a drink, Captain?”

  “Not that I can remember, Sestan.”

  I escorted Steve and our guests to the Captain's office where we could have a few drinks and discuss the matters at hand. We gave them a brief tour of the ship as we made our way through it. I included a trip to the bridge.

  “What happened to the Vengeance, Captain?”

  “Sestan, you don’t have to call me Captain. Call me Guerin, please.”

  “Ok. So what happened to the Vengeance, Guerin?”

  “I traded her in for the Ryvius. What do you think?”

  “It’s pretty impressive.”

  “Please, take a seat,” I instructed our guests while I privately contacted Prima over the comms to bring us a bottle of Pappy’s and some glasses. She was acting as the Captain’s personal steward since, as she put it, didn’t like the way I looked at the female Ranger who had been initially assigned that duty. Prima entered the room, placed the bottle and glasses in front of me, and left. I poured everyone a drink and raised my glass.

  Sestan’s eyes seemed to follow Prima the entire time she was in the office. Senri also noticed and I think she inflicted a sign of her displeasure under the table.

  “To old friends.”

  We toasted, and then we started to get down to business. Senri was still with us, which was not necessary but again not worth arguing about.

  “We have secured a facility here at the port for your team to use as their headquarters, Guerin.” Froshjen began. “I have sent a copy of the contracts to you for review. I have also arranged for housing for your team just outside of the spaceport. It’s a temporary lease for now. If they decide to stay there, we can make it more permanent. They may want to look around and make their own arrangements once they’re more familiar with the area.”

  “Thanks, I’ll introduce you later to David Nordman. He will be the manager in charge of the office and I’ll let him handle all of that. I’ll forward him the material.”

  “I did notice that you had transferred quite a large amount of credits to my personal account, Guerin. It is quite a bit more than I require for the services I have provided.”

  “That’s just an initial down payment, Froshjen. I was kind of hoping you would help out with some other issues?”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “The people we are leaving here to operate the office have never been on another planet, nor have a lot of our ships’ crews. I was wondering if you could provide escorts to help them acclimate to life on Trinix? Teach them the ropes, so to speak. Right now, I have restricted them all to stay on the ships, but as you can probably guess, they’re in a hurry to see what life on Trinix is all about.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem. How many facilitators would you require?”

  “Let’s say an even dozen?” Froshjen gave me a strange look. There was no such word in any non-Terran language. “I mean twelve. We’ll provide them some office space in our facility and put them on the payroll. If they’re familiar with ASTN and Trinix business practices, that would be even better. These positions could become permanent depending on our needs.”

  “I can have some people here later this afternoon if that works for you, Guerin?”

  “Great. Another thing, would you mind personally working with David until he gets his bearings?”

  “Of course.”

  I called for David over the comm network. It took him only a few minutes to arrive at the office.

  “David, this is Froshjen. He’ll be helping you get set up here on Trinix. He has a few people coming to help your team as well. Go ahead and put them on the payroll for now and arrange for offices for them in the facility Froshjen has leased for you. Froshjen will also be working for us as your personal liaison until you get more accustomed to your new home. I’ve forwarded you all the information from Froshjen, so perhaps you two should go and start discussing the details.”

  “That sounds great.”

  “Why don’t you and your team use the mess hall for now as a conference room. We’ll tell the crew to use the lounge for meals until you’re finished. As soon as his people get here, you and your team can pack up. They’ll get you set up in your living quarters and you can start to organize the office.”

  David nodded and gestured to Froshjen. “If you’d like to follow me? I’ll take you to the mess and call the rest of the team to join us. Once we get the introductions out of the way we can get started.”

  “First, I need to make a few calls to arrange for the employees we discussed, but my communications device appears not to be working onboard this ship.”

  David looked at me. I nodded to indicate he could trust Froshjen.

  “Yes, I’m sorry about that. The Captain takes ship security very seriously. If you will give me your communications device, we can make a stop and speak to the ship’s systems officer. I can have her put it on the approved list. Then you can make your calls.”

  As Froshjen stood up to follow David out of my office he said, “It was good seeing you again Guerin, Steve.”

  “We’ll be talking again.” I stood and shook his hand. “Our ships will most probably be here for a few months to help out David’s team. We’ll get together and discuss those other issues we have in private.”

  With the changes in the Terran system, Froshjen’s human smuggling network was going to be able to operate more openly on Earth. Since their transporter system gave them direct access to the Terran system, we wanted to take advantage of that to ship goods directly out here to the ASTN. I still wasn’t sure about using it to transport people. Not many of us knew about this transporter system and David’s team would only be told about it if Froshjen agreed. When Froshjen originally explained how the system worked to me I had no desire to travel that way.

  Ok, I might be sounding a little like Dr. McCoy here, but
I didn’t care for the idea of being disintegrated and then hopefully replicated correctly at the destination. See, the transporter didn’t work like the ones in Star Trek. It didn’t convert matter to energy and then back to that matter’s original form. Once you realize that your consciousness isn’t a physical object, you instantly understand that the Star Trek version couldn’t possibly work. This transporter first ripped your consciousness out, then it tore your physical body down into its sub-atomic basics as part of a scan to convert that physical matter to energy. That energy wave was much like a carrier wave that carried with it the information needed to replicate that body at the destination.

  Your consciousness was transferred through a trans-dimensional portal, like the Collective portal drives. They couldn’t open large portals like the Collective though. The portals they opened were microscopic and had a short dwell time, so physical objects couldn’t travel through them. See, the trans-dimensional portals were not a science only known to the Collective. They were just the only ones who could generate the power required to make them work. The power that the Collective could harness was off the standard Kardashev scale. They were literally capable of harnessing the energy of the entire universe based on what I could tell. That would make the Collective a type 4 civilization if you were to extend the scale beyond its standard defined three levels.

  The signal for the matter replication was transmitted using an FTL communication mechanism since it couldn’t be transmitted through the portals. There was some sort of physics crap that caused such signals to simply get lost in the void. I think it was the total lack of physical laws in the void that was the root of the problem. The FTL communication was fast, close to a million times faster than light, but it wasn’t instantaneous like traveling through a portal. The receiver for the transporter device had to wait to replicate the physical body before transferring your consciousness into your new physical body. That meant your consciousness was stuck in the void for a bit while waiting for your physical form to be broken down and replicated. It was the dwell time, the amount of time that they could hold a portal open for, along with the speed of the FTL signal, that limited the distance of this transporter for living beings. Since inanimate objects have no conscience to worry about, the transporter theoretically had no distance limit since a portal was not needed.